Chunning Sun

Postdoctoral researcher
Utrecht University

Department

Inorganic Chemistry & Catalysis

Contact information

Room
Vening Meineszgebouw C, Room 2.27

Email address
c.sun@uu.nl

Key expertises

Heterogeneous catalysis, catalyst preparation, noble metals, spectroscopy, operando technique

About me

I was born in Nanjing, Jiangsu Province. I obtained my BSc degree at Nanjing Tech University in 2011, subsequently got my MSc degree at University of Chinese Academy of Sciences in 2014, and finally received my PhD degree at Technische Universität Berlin in 2021. Since January 2022 I started my postdoctoral research as an ARC CBBC member at Utrecht University. In my spare time, I enjoy playing badminton and listening to music.

About my research

Currently, I am working on converting chlorinated products into higher value chemicals in collaboration with Nobian (ARC CBBC project). In this project, stable catalysts will be developed to enable selective conversion of undesired chlorinated products into value-added chemicals. Meanwhile, operando Raman spectroscopy will be employed to track the physicochemical changes of the solid catalyst during the reaction. Overall, the aim is to improve the catalytic efficiency, reuse the undesired products, generate the desired compounds, minimize energy for the separation process, lower the carbon footprint, and have positive impacts on environmental sustainability.

Academic career

Postdoctoral experience 2022 - now: Postdoctoral research fellow in the group of Inorganic Chemistry and Catalysis at Utrecht University Early Stage Researcher 2015 - 2021: PhD degree in the group of Physical Chemistry / Molecular Material Science at Technische Universität Berlin 2011 - 2014: MSc degree at Guangzhou Institute of Chemistry, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences

ARC CBBC publications

Highly Dispersed ZnO Sites in a ZnO/ZrO2 Catalyst Promote Carbon Dioxide-to-Methanol Conversion

X. Zhang, X. Yu, R. Mendes, P. Matvija, A. Melcherts, C. Sun, X. Ye, B. Weckhuysen, M. Monai