TUM SEMINAR
Invited by KCC - October 2, 2012
Auditorium, Level 0, between Ibn Sina and Ibn Al Haytham (buildings 2 and 3)
Biography
Prof. Fritz Elmar Kühn
Place of birth: Freising, Bavaria
Nationality: German
Marital Status: Married, one child
University Education:
1992-1994: Ph. D. (Dr. rer. nat.) in the group of Prof. Dr. Dr. h. c. mult. W. A. Herrmann at TUM
1995-1996: Postdoctoral research associate at the Texas A & M University in College Station (USA) in
the group of Prof. Dr. Dr h. c. mult. F. A. Cotton
1996-2000: Habilitation in Chemistry at TUM. Second Ph. D. degree (Dr. rer. nat. habil.).
(Comparable to the position of an Assistant Professor until 2005).
June 2005 - March 2006: Deputy Chair of Inorganic Chemistry of the Technische Universität München
(Equivalent to a Full Professorship).
April 2006 - Nov. 2006: Principal Researcher at the Instituto Technológico e Nuclear (ITN) in Sacavém
(Equivalent to an Associate Professorship).
Since Dec. 2006: Professor for Molecular Catalysis at the Department of Chemistry of TUM
Since Oct. 2007: Chair of Inorganic Chemistry of TUM.
Selected Awards: Otto-Roelen Medal of the DECHEMA; Hans Fischer Award from the Hans Fischer
society for examinations on catalytic aldehyde olefination.; Visiting Professor at the National University
of Singapore (2008); Award of the Liaoning Province (P. R. China) for excellent international cooperation.
Fritz Kühn is author or co-author of ca. 250 peer reviewed scientific publications and ca. 10 patents.
Currently he is responsible for more than 60 scientists, technicians and staff members at TUM.
Current h-index: 40 (ResearcherID: resercherid.com (A-3113-2010))
Prof. Dr. Klaus Köhler
Professor of Inorganic Chemistry, Department of Chemistry, Catalysis Research Center, Technische
Universität München, Germany
Studies of Chemistry (1980-1985) and Doctoral thesis (1985-1988), University of Leipzig, Germany;
Postdoctoral Associate, Institute of Inorganic and Analytical Chemistry, University of Fribourg,
Switzerland (1990-1993).
Postdoctoral Associate, Laboratory for Chemical Engineering, ETH Zurich, Switzerland (A. Baiker,
1993-1994).
Liebig Fellow (Fonds der Chemischen Industrie) and scientific collaborator at the Fritz Haber Institute
of the Max Planck Society (Prof. R. Schlögl); Group Leader for Inorganic Chemistry (1994-1996).
Lecturer at the Department of Chemistry, Technische Universität Berlin (1995-1996).
Habilitation, „Inorganic Chemistry“, Technische Universität Berlin (1996).
Professor of Inorganic Chemistry, Technische Universität München (since 1996).
Temporary Head of the Institute of Nuclear Chemistry at TU Munich (1999-2002).
Dean of students at the Department of Chemistry, TUM (2005-2007).
Otto Mønsted guest professor, Danish Technical University (DTU), Copenhagen (2008).
Prof. U. Heiz:
1981-1982:
Study of Medicine with completed 1st Propaedeutikum, University of Bern.
1982-1986:
Study of Physical Chemistry, University of Bern.
1986-1987:
Master's degree in Physical Chemistry: One- & multiphoton ionization of alkalimetal molecular beams in the near UV by frequency doubled dye-lasers.
Supervisor: Prof. E. Schumacher, University of Bern, Institute of Inorganic, Analytical and Physical
Chemistry.
1987-1991:
Ph.D. degree in Physical Chemistry: Mono- & bimetallic clusters of group 1 with
group 11 and 12 in molecular beam experiments.
Supervisor: Prof. E. Schumacher, University of Bern, Institute of Inorganic, Analytical and Physical
Chemistry.
1998:
Habilitation in Experimental Physics: Chemical and physical properties of Nanomaterials;
obtained in the group of Prof. W.-D. Schneider, University of Lausanne, Institute of Physics.
Career:
1987-1991:
Research and teaching assistant at the University of Bern.
1991-1993:
Andrew Mellon and Swiss National Foundation postdoctoral Fellow with Prof. J.T.
Yates, Jr., Director of the Surface Science Center in Pittsburgh in collaboration with the Exxon
Research & Engineering Company in the laboratory of Dr. D.M. Cox and Dr. A. Kaldor.
1993-2000:
Group leader of the research project ‘Size-selected clusters on solid surfaces’ in
the laboratory of Prof. W.-D. Schneider.
1995:
Invited Researcher at the National Institute for Advanced Interdisciplinary Research, Dr. H.
Takeo, Tsukuba, Japan.
1997-1998:
‘Professeur remplaçant’ during sabbatical of Prof. W.-D. Schneider at the
University of Lausanne.
Since 1998:
‘Privatdocent’ at the Institute of Physics, University of Lausanne.
1999-2000:
Alexander v. Humboldt Fellow at the ‘Freie Universität Berlin’ in the group of Prof.
L. Wöste.
2000-2004:
C3-Professorship at the University of Ulm.
2004 – pres.:
C4-Professorship at the Technical University of Munich.
2006 - 2009:
Vice Dean of the Chemistry Department at the TU München
2009-2012:
Dean of the Chemistry Department at the TU München
2005 – pres.:
Head of the Institute of Physical and Theoretical Chemistry at the TU München
2012 – pres.:
Member of the Scientific Board in Chemistry of the German Research Society
2012 – pres.:
Member of the Scientific Board of the Max Planck Society
Honors, Awards (selection):
1992
Andrew Mellon postdoctoral Fellow
2000
Alexander von Humboldt Fellow (1999/2000, Berlin, Germany).
2001
Appointment for an Associate Professorship at the Georgia Institute of Technology, School
of Chemistry (20. 4. 2001)
2001
Appointment for an acting Associate Professorship at the University of California, Berkeley,
Physical Chemistry (4. 6. 2001)
2010
ERC Advanced Grant
2012
Elected member of the Scientific Board of the Germany
Research Society
2012
Elected member of the Scientific Board of the Max Planck
Society
Abstracts
Klaus Köhler - Molecular Catalysis by Solid Catalysts
The Role of Leached Palladium Species for Coupling Reactions by
Supported Metal Particles
After short introduction to the general research fields of the group, the major part of the lecture reports specific
investigations on the nature and the role of potential active species in carbon-carbon coupling reactions of the
Heck and Suzuki type using supported palladium catalysts. From an extensive series of experiments, it can be
concluded that the “active species” is generated in situ in the catalytic systems under various temperature
conditions. In all supported palladium systems studied, Pd is dissolved from the solid catalyst surface under
reaction conditions forming extremely active coordinatively unsaturated Pd species. Pd is partially or completely
re-deposited onto the support at the end of the reaction. Pd dissolution-re-deposition processes correlate with
the reaction rate and vary strongly with the reaction conditions.
Skilled preparation of the catalysts and adjustment of the reaction conditions allowed the development of highly
active supported Pd nanoparticles (and complexes) that convert aryl bromides and chlorides in high yields and
short reaction times (turnover numbers of 107 for bromobenzene). Pd leaching is the prerequisite for the highly
efficient catalysis.
Different leaching mechanisms have been proposed within different temperature ranges and for different
reactions (Suzuki and Heck). Density Functional Theory (DFT) calculations provide a more detailed insight into
possible steps and the energetics of dissolution of Pd species from the surface of Pd particles, e.g. initiated by
oxidative addition of bromobenzene to corner atoms.
U. Heiz - Catalysis, photocatalysis and dynamics of size-selected
clusters at surfaces
Since the discovery of the astonishing size-dependent activity of small gold clusters for the oxidation of CO in
the late nineties, the study of size-selected clusters at surfaces has been growing to a vital research field within
cluster science. More than ten years of research in a combined effort between theory and experiment resulted in
a detailed understanding of cluster’s structural, electronic, optical, and magnetic properties. Furthermore,
several chemical, catalytic, and photocatalytic processes on clusters are understood on a molecular level, today.
This exciting advancement was only possible by a parallel development and introduction of novel, state-of-theart methods, both in experiment and theory.
In this talk a selected overview of recent findings are presented; starting from fundamental studies of clusters at
surfaces under well-defined UHV conditions, results from experiments performed in ambient are discussed. To
access the ultimate fundamentals of cluster chemistry, truly monodisperse cluster assembled materials are
required, i.e. with every cluster of the same size and adsorption site and thus chemical environment. To this
purpose size-selected PdN clusters are softlanded on the Moiré moieties of epitaxial graphene films. These welldefined samples allow for the first time to fully complement local with integrating measurements on cluster
reactivity and electronic structure and to even study isomer effects at the atomic scale.
In a second example, experimental and theoretical investigations of the oxidation reaction of CO to form carbon
dioxide, catalyzed by size-selected PdN clusters soft-landed on MgO(100), are described. The consequences of
pretreatment of the deposited clusters with molecular oxygen at elevated temperatures and a concomitant oxide
formation are explored. Onset of catalyzed combustion of CO starts at a temperature of 180K and the TPR
spectrum shows oxidation to occur over a broad temperature range, up to 550K; these reaction temperatures
are substantially lower than on the metallic PdN clusters.
In a third example the photochemistry of size-selected PtN clusters are explored under ambient conditions, i.e.
aqueous solution. Solar hydrogen production has recently gained renewed interest in photocatalytic hybrid
nanoparticle systems, utilizing colloidal semiconductor nanoparticles as sunlight absorber with additional noble
metal nanoparticles as hydrogen catalyst. By soft-landing size-selected Pt clusters under UHV conditions, a
novel decoration method for colloidally synthesized CdS-nanorods is presented. A CdS-nanorod film was spincoated onto an ITO substrate and decorated with size-selected Pt clusters at various precisely controlled
coverages. Subsequently, quantum efficiencies were measured in an aqueous solution of triethanolamine (TEA)
as a hole scavenger under UV illumination in dependence of average number of clusters per nanorod and
cluster size.