News

The summer season tends to be quite relaxed at the Chair of Electrochemical Process Engineering, as most of the staff takes vacations to enjoy the sunny weather. This year, however, Mina Attia and Carlos Lobo traded some of their summer activities for the chance to attend the International Summer School on Electrocatalysis and Organic Electrosynthesis in Interlaken, Switzerland.

The summer school, organized by the Swiss Chemical Society from 28-31 August, was attended by internationally renowned researchers from industry and academia as well as students (master- and PhD-level) from across Europe and presented an overview of the different challenges faced by the chemical sector in its path towards becoming a green and decarbonized industry. Electrochemical processes are, thus, highly valued as a way to make use of renewable electricity to produce platform chemicals and high-value chemicals from abundant reactants such as CO₂, N₂, nitrate, and H₂O. As such, topics discussed during the summer school included the material aspects of catalyst and electrode fabrication, as well as design principles of electrolyzers and their stability under industrially relevant operating conditions.

The lectures presented at the summer school and the poster sessions that were available provided plenty of opportunities for the participants and invited lecturers to exchange information and initiate discussions on relevant topics. Of particular interest to the Chair of Electrochemical Process Engineering were the fabrication of electrodes using the Dynamic Hydrogen Bubble Template technique and the modeling and simulation of the electrochemical reduction of CO₂ and N₂. 

Dr. Lobo (left) and Mr. Attia (right) relaxing during the coffee break

The participants of the Summer School. (Credit: Swiss Chemical Society, published with permission).