Bram Kappé

About me

Both my bachelor’s degree and master’s degree were obtained at Utrecht university. During my studies I’ve worked on projects at the IMC group in Eindhoven, CMI and OCC in Utrecht, SOC in Amsterdam, and very briefly (because of covid) in a synthesis group in Dunedin, New Zealand. During my free time I enjoy cooking and sailing on skûtsjes which are old Frisian freight boats.

About my research

We want to contribute to designing the best possible catalyst for the conversion of CO2 to useful products, closing the carbon loop and aiding the transition to a circular society. We want to pinpoint the active site of hydrogenation catalysts. We aim to independently control the catalyst particle size, weight loading and support. To do this we are developing a synthetic method to prepare colloidal Ni nanoparticles and utilize these as heterogeneous catalysts. These supported Ni catalysts will be tested for CO2 hydrogenation to methane. In my research I benefit from past experience in several organic chemistry groups. For example, I use the same ligands for my colloidal synthesis method as I’ve used during my master’s research at OCC.