Designing Immortal Catalysts for Energy Applications and Carbon Capture: Current Trends & Challenges
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Designing Immortal Catalysts for Energy Applications and Carbon Capture: Current Trends & Challenges
Wed, 27/05/2026 - 14:00 to 15:00
Speaker:
Dr Evangelos Papaioannou
Affiliation:
Newcastle University
Synopsis:
Exsolved nanostructures are emerging as a powerful platform with the potential to transform the catalysis landscape. By enabling the controlled emergence of socketed, uniformly distributed nanoparticles from oxide hosts, these systems exhibit unique and tunable properties, including enhanced stability against sintering, strong metal–support interactions, and dynamic catalytic functionality under operating conditions. Such features open new opportunities across a range of applications, from energy conversion and chemical synthesis to environmental remediation. This presentation will highlight key examples demonstrating the performance advantages of exsolved nanostructures, while also addressing the critical challenges associated with their scale-up, particularly in relation to dilute separations and process integration. In parallel, ion transport membranes for CO₂ capture will be discussed as a complementary technology with significant promise for efficient carbon management. The major scientific and engineering barriers to their large-scale deployment will be examined, including materials stability, transport efficiency, and system design. Overall, the talk will provide insights into how advanced functional materials can bridge fundamental science and industrial application, while outlining the pathway toward scalable and sustainable technologies.
Biography:
Evangelos Papaioannou is a graduate of the Department of Materials Science at the University of Patras (2005). He continued his studies in the Department of Chemical Engineering at the same university, and in 2007 he obtained his Master’s degree in Physical, Chemical, and Biochemical Processes. He then completed his PhD in 2010 on the preparation of thin films via plasma deposition for applications in the electrochemical promotion of catalytic reactions, under the supervision of Professor Konstantinos Vayenas. He went on to carry out postdoctoral research in the same laboratory in the fields of catalysis, electrocatalysis, and fuel cells until 2012. That same year, he moved to the Department of Chemical Engineering at Newcastle University in England, where he joined the Materials, Concept and Reaction Engineering (MatCoRE) group as a postdoctoral researcher under the supervision of Professor Ian Metcalfe. During his research activity at Newcastle University, he worked on innovative catalysts for optimizing catalytic processes, high-temperature membranes for the capture and utilization of pollutants, and hydrogen production in low-emission systems. In 2017, he was appointed Lecturer in the Department of Chemical Engineering at Newcastle University, and in 2021 he was promoted to the position of Senior Lecturer in the same department. He now serves as Head of the Materials, Concept and Reaction Engineering (MatCoRE) group. Evangelos is also the UK Director of Prometheus Advanced Materials and Recycling, an SME that focuses on the development of advanced catalytic nanomaterials and sustainable industrial technologies for environmental and resource-efficient applications. E. Papaioannou’s research activity has had a significant impact on scientific research in the design and optimization of materials and devices for a wide range of applications. His work in catalysis, particularly using micro- and nano-catalysts for energy and environmental applications, is internationally recognized, with publications in journals such as Nature Communications, Nature Chemistry, Advanced Energy Materials, and Nature Energy, among others.