Two GreenCats PhD theses were defended

Two students of our group got Ph.D. degree. Viola and Jarda focused on the development of catalysts for ester hydrogenolysis. Although the process uses efficient CuCr catalysts, an environmentally-friendly catalyst needs to be searched for. Viola deeply investigated the CuZnO catalytic system, where she described the effect of many preparation methods on the final catalyst structure and activity. Also, the catalyst precursor resulting in the very active catalyst was identified. Jarda synthesized various promoted and supported Cu catalysts and elucidated the contribution of each promoter or support. Also, he deeply investigated the mechanism of dimethyl adipate hydrogenolysis.