Catalysis

Course manual 2025/2026

Course content

Catalysis has a huge impact on our lives. Every process in our cells involves catalysts, and more than 90% of the products that we use on a daily basis would be impossible without it. This course explains the basics of catalysis and its connection to sustainable chemistry, usign hands-on examples. The lectures and excercises cover catalyst synthesis, characterisation, and testing, as well as the basics of kinetic analysis and modelling. Among other subjects, we cover the elementary reactions of ligand-metal complexes, reactions at surfaces and catalysis by metalloenzymes. The lectures are coupled to five lab days where students synthesise homogeneous and heterogeneous catalysts and test these in different reactions.

Study materials

Literature

• G. Rothenberg, 'Catalysis: Concepts & Green Applications', second edition, Wiley-VCH, Weinheim, 2017, ISBN 978-3-527-34305-8.

   

  This is a new and updated paperback edition. If you own a copy of the first edition you can use that, but the 2nd edition has 50 more exercises and is updated with the latest developments.

Practical training material

• lab instructions are available via Canvas

Other

Objectives

• The student is able to explain the principles of catalytic processes in the context of homogeneous, heterogeneous and enzymatic catalysis.
• The student is able to synthesize homogeneous and heterogeneous catalysts and is able to run lab-scale catalytic reactions in liquid phase and liquid/solid systems.
• The student is able to apply catalytic principles to make chemical processes more sustainable.

Teaching methods

• Lecture
• Computer lab session/practical training
• Self-study
• Seminar

The course includes lectures, tutorials, homework assignments, and lab days. In the lectures, the students learn the basics and can ask questions relating to the material they read at home. In the tutorials, the students get the chance to practice the theory in exercises with a teacher that explains the methodology and techniques for problem solving. The lab days are mandatory and give the students a taste of the real experimental work in homogeneous and heterogeneous catalysis, which is very much like what they would do if they choose to work as researchers in a chemical company.

Learning activities

Attendance

Programme's requirements concerning attendance (OER-B):

• Active participation is expected of each student in the course for which he is registered.
• If a student cannot attend an obligatory part of a programme's component due to circumstances beyond his control, he must report in writing to the teacher in question as soon as possible. The teacher, if necessary after consulting the study adviser, may decide to issue the student a replacing assignment.
• It is not allowed to miss obligatory parts of the programme's component if there is no case of circumstances beyond one's control.
• In case of participating qualitatively or quantitatively insufficiently, the examiner can expel a student from further participation in the programme's component or a part of that component. Conditions for sufficient participation are fixed in advance in the study guide and/or on Canvas.

Additional requirements for this course:

Participation in the lab sessions is mandatory the course.

Assessment

In the exam you may use only pen/pencil, paper and a simple calculator.

Inspection of assessed work

The manner of inspection will be communicated via the digitial learning environment.

Fraud and plagiarism

The 'Regulations governing fraud and plagiarism for UvA students' applies to this course. This will be monitored carefully. Upon suspicion of fraud or plagiarism the Examinations Board of the programme will be informed. For the 'Regulations governing fraud and plagiarism for UvA students' see: www.student.uva.nl

Course structure

Additional information

We assume that you have a basic knowledge of physical chemistry, inorganic chemistry, and organic chemistry, at the level of 2nd-year students.

In general, our aim is to give all the lectures in English. In some cases, depending on the students, some of the lectures can be given in Dutch. Students may ask questions in Dutch and may write their exam answers in Dutch, although using English is encouraged.

Contact information

Coordinator

• prof. dr. Gadi Rothenberg