How ARC CBBC brings together academia and industry for sustainable chemistry
Chemists Eline Hutter and Marta Costa Figueiredo had long recognized how their different scientific backgrounds could complement each other. While they had informally discussed working together in the past, these ideas never materialized due to lack of funding. It was ARC CBBC that finally paired them officially and provided the crucial resources. Eline, with her expertise in materials, and Marta, an expert in electrochemistry , saw an opportunity to work together on something meaningful.
Their partnership, supported by ARC CBBC, focuses on developing better, less expensive catalysts for hydrogen production. It's the kind of collaboration that can make real progress toward more sustainable chemistry: bringing together university researchers with different specialties and connecting them with industry partners who can help bring solutions to scale.
The origins
For Marta, an electrochemist with two decades of research experience, the fascination with molecules has deep roots. "I'm very interested in how molecules interact with solid surfaces, the electrodes that we use in these setups, and how we can tune the reaction mechanism toward a more efficient pathway," she explains. Growing up close to farms, in the midst of nature, she just wants to preserve what she values. "I would like to leave the world the same way that I found it, if not better,” she says.
Eline's path to sustainable chemistry began early on: "Already as a child, I was concerned about the planet," she says. After studying chemistry, she found a PhD project in Delft working on solar energy materials. "This is the point where these two things came together for me: satisfying my interest to learn new things while doing something useful for society." Today, Eline focuses on developing solar materials and more sustainable alternatives to toxic or scarce materials. "I'm concerned about material depletion," she explains. "Making sure we don't exhaust the resources we have, is a major driving force for me."
Greenifying chemistry
This project directly addresses two critical transitions in sustainable chemistry. First, it contributes to the energy transition by improving hydrogen electrolyzers, supporting hydrogen's development as a renewable fuel. Second, it advances the materials transition by seeking alternatives to rare metals currently used as electrocatalysts.
Their work has two key aspects, as Eline explains: " Storing green electricity from solar and wind in the form of chemical energy, and materials transition.” The overall aim is to find catalyst materials for these processes that show the same performance while using less precious elements.
Shared knowledge
The complementary nature of their expertise had been clear to both researchers for some time, but ARC CBBC provided the formal framework to make it happen. "Eline has a very strong background in materials, and I have the background in electrochemistry," Marta says. "This project looks into less costly, more available, less toxic materials for electrolysis."
Their collaboration explores High-Entropy Alloys (HEAs) as novel electrocatalysts for the oxygen evolution reaction in alkaline media, a critical component of hydrogen production. Their work aims to reduce dependence on precious metals like iridium and ruthenium, contributing to both the energy and materials transition priorities of ARC CBBC.
Their different areas of expertise fit together naturally in this research. "The two fields are very well defined, very separate, but super complementary at the same time," Marta explains. "Most likely there's going to be a person doing all the materials work with Eline and then testing them with me, so we can really understand and make this bridge between the activity and performance and the material composition."
For Eline, this creates exciting possibilities: "This is really the start of something new, a new field even. If successful, we can do a lot of follow-up research. I see opportunities both in industry and in the academic setting."
Shared facilities
The collaboration bridges not just scientific disciplines but also institutions, with Eline based at Utrecht University and Marta at Eindhoven University of Technology. This arrangement offers great advantages for their research. Utrecht's strong points are catalytic and material testing, material characterization, and spectroscopy, while Eindhoven offers specialized equipment for electrochemical testing.
“At Eindhoven,” Marta says, “we have infrastructure for electrolyzers and reactors closer to industrial scale. Ideally, at the end of the project, we could test some of the materials in a larger scale." Together, the two universities provide all the tools needed to take the research from initial material design to practical testing. "For our postdoctoral researcher it will be really nice to have access to all the equipment and expertise of both institutes," Eline says.
Shared expertise
The inclusion of Shell as an industry partner helps strengthen this collaboration in practical ways. "Shell has a whole R&D department on electrolysis," Marta points out. "If we find something interesting, the idea is to test it in their facilities at a bigger scale and run long-term electrolysis; something that is normally more difficult to do at a university."
For Eline, Shell provides invaluable market insights: "They have a much better view on the markets. Is this material available on the scale we're talking about? How costly is this? We often don’t consider these things at the university." This perspective helps the researchers focus on solutions with real-world applicability, right from the early stages on.
The framework
ARC CBBC plays two important roles in these collaborations. First, it connects researchers with industry partners. "The exposure of researchers toward industry and vice versa," as Marta puts it, helps in finding common challenges where they can work together.
Second, ARC CBBC helps manage expectations between the academic and industrial worlds. Eline: "If my expectation is to have an open access dataset, and the expectation of the company is to have a product with patents, then we need to make sure that everyone agrees on the goal."
Third, and perhaps most importantly for the researchers themselves, ARC CBBC provides the framework for new collaborative projects. "It’s really difficult to get funding or to get the trust to pursue new research," Eline says. "Now we get the chance to start something new that could open many doors for us."
Of course, there are practical challenges too. The researchers note that coordinating work between Utrecht and Eindhoven will require careful planning, as the postdoc will need to split time between both locations. But they're confident that good management will help navigate these logistical hurdles.
Sustainable steps
To tackle important sustainability challenges, ARC CBBC connects researchers with complementary expertise, providing the resources they need to. For Marta and Eline, it's a chance to work together on something that matters. For the wider world, it's one more step toward cleaner, more sustainable chemistry.
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