Photo-catalysis

🌱 From biomass to value-added chemicals — powered by Copper@Carbon catalysts.
Sincere warm congratulations to all co-authors!!! Especially to you, dear Ahmed!, for your priceless help.
Our new review in ChemCatChem explores how copper–carbon materials can help drive greener chemical processes by combining:
🔸 Cu active sites for selective redox chemistry
🔸 Conductive porous carbon for electron transfer
🔸 Strong Cu–C synergy for stability and performance
🔸 Smart synthesis routes including hydrothermal methods, impregnation, M*F pyrolysis, and CVD
The big picture? Affordable, tunable, and future-ready catalysts for sustainable biomass conversion.
📘 New review article: Copper@Carbon Materials for Sustainable Chemical Processes: Synthesis, Function, and Future Directions

https://www.photo-catalysis.org/publications/coppercarbon-materials-for-sustainable-chemical-processes-synthesis-function-and-future-directions

🌍 The climate crisis demands cleaner energy and chemicals. Prof. Colmenares's team at the Institute of Physical Chemistry (Polish Academy of Sciences) has spent over a decade pioneering catalysts and photoreactors that turn contaminated water and air into green hydrogen and hydrogen peroxide. Their innovations, fine-tuned nanostructured catalysts, plasmonic sonophotocatalysts, lead-free perovskites and the ReactoReQ photoreforming reactor—can replace polluting, fossil-fuel processes. By harnessing sunlight, these technologies cut up to 830 million tonnes of CO2 emissions each year and create local, safe supplies of clean fuel and natural oxidant. This is the future of energy and chemistry. Let's invest in science that brings sustainable solutions to the world. 💧⚡
https://www.photo-catalysis.org/news/colmenares-group-ushers-in-a-green-hydrogen-and-peroxide-revolution

We’re so proud to celebrate the hard work and ingenuity behind two extraordinary Ph.D. theses at the Dipartimento di Scienze Molecolari e Nanosistemi, Università Ca’ Foscari Venezia!
🔬 Asymmetric Catalysis in Water – Davide Frigatti redesigned an industrial process using chiral surfactants, cutting the environmental impact by 63 % while boosting selectivity. Sustainability isn’t a buzzword; it’s a design principle.
💡 Light Driven Transformations – Ilaria Bertuol’s thesis brings photo initiated polymerization, photocatalytic oxidation, and fluorescent nanomaterials together in one powerful toolkit. Think lubricious syringe coatings, green oxidation and photonic composites – all without heavy metals.
🧠 Expert Insight – Prof. Dr. Juan Carlos Colmenares served as external reviewer. He praised the real world relevance and sustainability of both projects and recommended them for doctoral degrees.
🎤 Special Lecture – Prof. Colmenares also gave a talk titled “From Sonophotocatalysis to Piezo Photoredox: Breakthrough Materials Approaches Enabling Concurrent Organic Synthesis and H₂/H₂O₂ Generation.” It’s a mouthful, but the message is clear: combining sound and light can yield cleaner chemistry and energy.
🙏 A huge thank you to Prof. Dr. Alvise Perosa and Dr. Daily Rodríguez Padrón for making this exchange happen. Collaboration drives innovation.
Let’s keep pushing the boundaries of green chemistry together! 🌱

Venice Unleashed: Prof. Colmenares Reimagines PhD Defenses as Launchpads for Powerful Partnerships Venice, Italy: April 20th – 23rd, 2026:Abstracts of the Ph.D. theses and the expert’s roleAlternative Solvents and Innovative Synthetic Pathways for the Formation of Dimers – Davide Frigatti. This thesis develops asymmetric catalysis in aqueous micellar media using chiral surfactants and rede...