Welcome to HyPerCat (FOR 5715)
The Research Unit "Bridging Concepts in Thermo- and Electro-Hydrogen Peroxide Catalysis" (HyPerCat) aims at the development of common concepts for the thermo- and electrocatalytic production of hydrogen peroxide. Hydrogen peroxide is a green oxidant and a base chemi-cal with a large production volume and a wide range of applications, e.g. in the textile and paper industries, waste water treatment and chemical synthesis. Potential scenarios for future sustainable production of hydrogen peroxide include direct thermo-catalytic synthesis of hydrogen peroxide from molecular hydrogen and oxygen using electro-catalytically produced hydrogen (t-HP) and direct selective electrocatalytic reduction of oxygen to hydrogen peroxide (e-HP).
In HyPerCat, eight research teams from the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) and the Technical University of Berlin (TUB) are jointly investigating the processes of t-HP and e-HP at the various scales, i.e. from the atomic view with a focus on the reaction mechanisms and catalyst active sites, through the reactor design taking into account heat and mass transfer limitations, to the examination of value chains on an industrial scale. In the framework of the eight projects, we combine catalyst preparation, in situ and operando characterization, kinetic studies (both micro- and macro-kinetics) with test facilities at different scales and novel reactors, as well as multiscale modeling based on theoretical calculations (density functional theory) and experiments. In this way, we envision to gain access to performance descriptors for more active and selective catalyst states and reaction conditions, where information gained in e-HP can help in the systematic design of efficient catalysts in t-HP and vice versa.
HyPerCat, which consists of eight research teams from Karlsruher Instituts für Technologie (KIT) and Technischen Universität Berlin (TUB) is funded by Deutschen Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG).
The first HyPerCat seminar in 2026 will take place on January 26. Prof. Georg Kastlunger from the Technical University of Denmark will present his research on “Non-Nernstian effects and kinetics-informed descriptors in electrocatalysis”. You are cordially invited to attend either on-site or online.
At the end of November, we could welcome Jessica Hübner, PostDoc at TU Berlin and member of the HyPerCat project for a seminar talk at IKFT. She also had the chance to meet with fellow researchers of the HyPerCat project at KIT, as well as other scientists. We want to thank Jesscia for her interesting talk!
On 17 November 2025, the HyPerCat PhD students meet for a PhD meeting & the lab tour of subproject 8. They discussed how they employ Python and Matlab in their research and what next workshops could be of interest. The meeting was concluded with a joint dinner and Christmas market visit in Karlsruhe one week later.
Another HyPerCat seminar, this time in cooperation with the CRC 1441 TrackAct will take place at ITCP on KIT Campus South. Prof. Dr. Max Hülsey from TU Munich will present his research on ‘The impact of polarization on thermochemical catalysis’. You are cordially invited to attend either on-site or online.
From July 21-23, 2025, most of the HyPerCat project team travelled to Berlin for our bi-annual project meeting – this time hosted by TP7. Besides the status update of all the sub projects, we also discussed different methods for H2O2 quantification and other aspects affecting most TPs. Clearly, a lot of work has already been conducted since the start of the project in fall 2024, and we even had to cut short the engaging discussions after the talks for the sake of time repeatedly.
The main project meeting was then followed by a PhD meeting, which was this time mainly dedicated to making all students familiar with the basic concepts of electrochemistry. While Philipp Röse (PI TP5) provided the necessary theoretical background, Jessica Hübner (TP7) showed the HyPerCat PhD students some of the most often used measurement cells and gave a lab tour. The PhD students also had time to discuss organizational topics (e.g. next lab tour & courses), but also general challenges during their PhD work.
The whole HyPerCat wants to thank the team members of TP 7 – Jonas Grings, Jessica Hübner and Peter Strasser – as well as all other helpers – for the great organization of this meeting!
A part of the HyPerCat project team (TP1, TP3, TP7 and TP8) took part in a recent experiment studying Pd hydride formation at the ASTRA beamline of Solaris synchrotron in Krakov (Poland). There they not only had the chance to test ASTRA’s new sample holder equipment for the first time, but also gain new insight into the electronic nature of some synthesized HyPerCat catalyst samples. Furthermore, there was also time for scientific discussions and even visiting Krakov city center and Wieliczka salt mine.
HyPerCat wants to especially thank Dr. Henning Lichtenberg and Dr. Alexey Maximenko (both Solaris synchrotron) for their great support during this beamtime!