Carbon-based materials are playing an increasingly important role in catalysis owing to their structural diversity, tunable electronic properties, and applicability across thermal, electrochemical, and photochemical processes. From nitrogen-doped porous carbons for electrocatalysis, to carbon nitrides enabling photo- and photoelectrochemical transformations, carbon-based materials offer unique opportunities for the sustainable conversion of abundant resources into fuels and chemicals. Despite rapid progress in the field, important challenges remain in understanding how structure, heteroatom incorporation, porosity, and active-site govern catalytic activity, selectivity, and stability across different catalytic platforms. This symposium aims to discuss recent advances and emerging challenges in the design, synthesis, characterization, and application of carbon-based catalytic materials. It will provide an overview of state-of-the-art approaches for the development of heteroatom-doped carbons, carbon nitrides, and polymer materials for electro-, photo-, and photoelectrocatalytic applications. Particular emphasis will be placed on understanding structure–property relationships, reaction mechanisms, and arising concepts in catalysis. The symposium will bring together leading researchers providing a platform for the exchange of ideas, new approaches, and collaborations. Participants will have the opportunity to engage in discussions spanning fundamental aspects of carbon-based materials chemistry to the development of next-generation catalytic systems for sustainable energy conversion and chemical synthesis.
- Carbon Materials
- Carbon Nitrides
- Functional Polymers
- Covalent Organic Frameworks
- Photo- Photoelectro- and Electro-catalysis
- Heterogeneous Catalysis
Jesús Barrio Hermida received his Bachelor of Science in Chemistry from the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (Madrid, Spain) in 2014, where he got in touch for the first time with chemical research whilst working in the synthesis and characterization of Fe and Cu coordination polymers in the Inorganic Chemistry department.
In 2016, he obtained his Master in Nanoscience and Molecular Nanotechnology from the same institution. His Master Thesis, carried out at the IMDEA Nanoscience Institute entailed the formation of controlled assemblies of plasmonic building blocks and was directed by Dr. Beatriz H. Juárez and Prof. Félix Zamora.
Due to a scholarship in the Erasmus program, he moved to the Max Planck Institute for Colloids and Interfaces (Potsdam, Germany) for pursuing his doctoral studies, and in September 2016, he joined the Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (Beer-Sheva, Israel) along with his PhD supervisor, Prof. Menny Shalom, where he obtained his PhD in May 2020. His doctoral thesis focused on the design of metal-free carbon nitride materials for photo-electrocatalytic applications.
In June 2020 he joined the Materials Department at Imperial College as a Research Associate for working along with Dr. Ifan Stephens and Prof. Magda Titirici in the design of hybrid metal-carbon composites for different electrochemical applications. In August 2023 he started his independent career as an Imperial College Research Fellow at the Chemical Engineering Deaprtment of Imperial. His research covers the synthesis of carbon-based materials for different energy-related scenarios.
Dr. Fellinger is Head of the Division 3.6 Electrochemical Energy Materials at the German Federal Institute for Materials Research and Testing (BAM). He is a nanostructure and molecular scientist by training (diploma at University of Kassel, DE), who received his PhD in colloid chemistry (with summa cum laude) at the University of Potsdam/DE under the direct supervision of Prof. Markus Antonietti in 2011. After a short postdoctoral stays at the Tokyo Institute of Technology (Prof. Ichiro Yamanaka) he was a research group leader at the Max Planck Institute for Colloids and Interfaces in Potsdam-Golm (2012-2017). In 2016/17 he was an awarded Researcher-in-Residence at Chalmers Institute of Technology in Gothenburg (Prof. Anders Palmqvist), followed by one term as W2-substitute professor for inorganic chemistry at the University of Applied Science Zittau/Görlitz. Afterwards until 2020 he joined Prof. Hubert Gasteiger´s Chair for Technical Electrochemistry (Technical University Munich) with a fuel cell project. In 2020 Dr. Fellinger´s group joined the Federal Institute for Materials Research and Testing (BAM) in Berlin. Dr. Fellinger received the Donald-Ulrich Award 2017 of the International Sol-Gel Society and the Ernst-Haage Award for Chemistry of the Max-Planck Institute for Chemical Energy Conversion. His research interests are the synthetic chemistry of novel materials and their usage in energy-related applications with a focus on different carbon-based materials like nitrogen-doped carbons, M-N-C catalysts or hard carbon anodes. He has published ~60 articles in peer-reviewed journals (>6000 citations, H-index: 41).
Dr. Ruud Kortlever is an associate professor at Delft University of Technology (TU Delft) in the Large-Scale Energy Storage section of the Department of Process & Energy. He received his PhD from Leiden University in 2015, working with prof.dr. Marc T.M. Koper on “Selective and efficient electrochemical CO2 reduction on nanostructured catalysts”.
Ruud then spent almost two years working as a postdoctoral fellow at the Joint Center of Artificial Photosynthesis (JCAP) at the California Institute of Technology. Working closely with prof.dr. Theodor Agapie and prof.dr. Jonas C. Peters he concentrated further on electrochemical CO2 reduction, setting up and designing analytical techniques for product analysis and developing new electrocatalytic systems for efficient CO2 conversion.
In January 2018 Ruud returned to the Netherlands to start his independent career as assistant professor at Delft University of Technology. His group is interested in electrochemical conversions that are relevant for renewable fuel production and the electrification of the chemical industry. With the help of mechanistical insights, modelling and theory predictions his group contributes to solving contemporary energy problems by developing new electrocatalytic systems and devices.
Giulia Lavarda received her B.Sc. in Chemistry in 2012 and her M.Sc. in Chemistry in 2014 from the University of Padua (Italy). She then moved to the Autonomous University of Madrid (Spain), where she completed her Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry under the supervision of Prof. Tomás Torres. Her doctoral research focused on the synthesis and study of bowl-shaped aromatics for energy conversion applications. During this period, she conducted research stays in the laboratories of Prof. A. Osuka at Kyoto University (Japan) and Prof. D. M. Guldi at Friedrich Alexander University Erlangen–Nürnberg (Germany). In 2021, she joined the group of Prof. E.W. (Bert) Meijer at Eindhoven University of Technology (The Netherlands) as a Marie Skłodowska-Curie postdoctoral fellow. There, she investigated the assembly and optoelectronic properties of photoactive supramolecular polymers. Since February 2025, she has been a group leader at the Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research (MPIP) in Mainz, where her research focuses on chiral supramolecular systems with optoelectronic functionalities.
Oleksandr Savateev was born and raised in Kyiv, Ukraine. He received his BSc and MSc degrees in chemistry from the National Technical University of Ukraine “Kyiv Polytechnic Institute” and the PhD degree in organic chemistry from the Institute of Organic Chemistry of the National Academy of Science of Ukraine. In 2015, he joined the Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces in Potsdam, Germany, where he worked as a postdoctoral researcher. In 2017, at the same institute, he started his group “Innovative Heterogeneous Photocatalysis”. During this period of his carrier, he received several national German and European grants. In 2023, he took the position of the Vice-Chancellor Associate Professor at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. He is a member of consortia of researchers that work on solving applied and fundamental problems by means of solar light and photocatalysis. His current research interests include organic synthesis mediated by heterogeneous photocatalysts, application of photocharged semiconductors in organic synthesis and data-driven research. He is an editor and author of several books, including “Carbon nitrides. Structure, properties and applications in science and technology”, and author of more than 100 research articles. In 2024, he completed his Habilitation in Organic Chemistry at the University of Potsdam, Germany. As an educator, he is interested in gamification of teaching and studying. He is a creator of ChemChallenge – the first video game for teaching and studying physical chemistry.
Gianvito Vilé