Special Seminar · Sendai
Operando Studies of CO/CO₂ and N₂ Catalytic Reduction Reactions
Seeing catalysts at work.
Exploring CO/CO₂ and N₂ reduction through operando measurements. Join Anders Nilsson in Sendai.
Perspective
Turning CO₂ into fuels and chemical feedstocks. Converting nitrogen into ammonia. Developing catalysts for a more sustainable society requires a closer look at what happens on their surfaces while reactions are running.
This seminar explores how hard X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy probes the chemical states and adsorbates of working catalysts. By extending measurements to higher pressures, operando studies offer experimental insight into reactions central to energy and chemical production.
Lecture
Reducing CO₂ to hydrocarbons and alcohols is central to producing fuels and chemical feedstocks, while reducing N₂ to ammonia underpins fertilizer production. Despite extensive research, experimental information remains limited on the chemical states and adsorbates present at catalyst surfaces during turnover.
Professor Nilsson will introduce POLARIS, a hard X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy system developed at Stockholm University and installed at beamline P22 of PETRA III in Hamburg. The lecture presents operando studies of methanol synthesis, Fischer–Tropsch and Haber–Bosch reactions on single-crystal metal surfaces at 0.1–1 bar. Varying the X-ray incidence angle allows measurements to emphasize either the surface or the bulk.
Speaker
Anders Nilsson
Stockholm University, Sweden
Anders Nilsson earned his PhD in physics at Uppsala University in 1989, in the research environment established by Nobel laureate Kai Siegbahn. He spent approximately 15 years as a professor of Photon Science at Stanford University before returning to Sweden in 2014.
His research brings X-ray spectroscopy and scattering to questions in water and aqueous solutions, surface bonding and reactions, catalysis and ultrafast science.
His honors include the American Physical Society’s Earle K. Plyler Prize (2024)[3], the Lindbomska Award of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, the Royal Oscar Award of Uppsala University, the Shirley Award and the Humboldt Research Award. In 2015, he was awarded an honorary doctorate by the Technical University of Denmark.
Information
- Date & time
- Tuesday, 24 November 2026, 11:00–12:00 JST (proposed revised time)
- Venue
- Sendai · venue to be confirmed
- Format
- In person
- Language
- English
- Talk & discussion
- 45-minute lecture followed by Q&A
Organizers
- Planned host
International Center for Synchrotron Radiation Innovation Smart (SRIS), Tohoku University
Susumu Yamamoto: susumu@tohoku.ac.jp
Yoshihisa Harada: harada@issp.u-tokyo.ac.jp