Jan van Hest

About me

The ARC CBBC offers a unique opportunity to establish public-private partnerships to translate our expertise on compartmentalization into solutions for catalysis and advanced materials. Compartmentalization can aid in improving the lifetime of catalysts, and, in case multistep transformations are required, in compatibilizing different catalytic species. Furthermore, smart compartments can be constructed that make materials, such as coatings, stimulus-responsive. It will be highly rewarding to find industrial partners with whom we can design and execute projects to improve on their production processes or their final products.

About my research

The development of catalytic nanoreactors. Following a supramolecular approach we have been able to construct polymer-based capsules that are functionalized with catalytic species. We have shown to be able to introduce multiple (bio)catalysts with positional control in one polymer nanoreactor. These nanoreactors have been used as mimics of cells and organelles, and have found their purpose as nanomotors, and in chemical transformations. The excellent control we have achieved over the years has enabled us to create molecular architectures with enhanced level of complexity, moving toward life-like systems.