•  I
• a · A  I
• Accesibility  I
• Map  I
• Search  I
• Staff directory

• ::  Iniciar sessió :: 

Hermenegildo García, a researcher at the Instituto de Tecnología Química (ITQ), a joint research centre of the Universitat Politècnica de València (UPV) and the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC) and professor at the UPV, has obtained an ERC Advanced Grant, the most prestigious awarded annually by the European Research Council. The ITQ researcher has received this important grant, worth 2.5 million euros, for the development of the Discovery project over the next five years.

The project led by Hermenegildo García aims to develop catalysts based on MXenos, which are 1 nanometre thick (a million times thinner than hair) nanomaterials and are made of metals. Their applications are multiple and cover fields such as biomedicine for tissue repair, the storage of electrical energy in large quantities, and the generation of hydrogen from water as efficiently as possible, among many others.

The objective is to obtain results in a series of already studied reactions that cannot be transferred to the industry because no catalyst allows them to be carried out conveniently. Some examples of responses that will be investigated in the project are the conversion of carbon dioxide into methanol or the decomposition of methane to obtain hydrogen.

Other tasks of the Discovery research project include activating reactions using sunlight as the primary energy source with the MXenos. "This would replace a conventional energy source responsible for carbon dioxide emissions, such as the combustion of fossil fuels, and even other renewable energies that require more expensive infrastructure, such as electricity, with exposure to natural sunlight. This would make the process more sustainable and economically more attractive than the currently used", highlights Hermenegildo García.

"For me, receiving this ERC will let me research materials with great potential, applying them to reactions that could be of great interest in the current decarbonisation process. Together with Dr Ana Primo and the rest of the team started working with the MXenos six years ago. At the end of June, we brought together the best researchers in the field at the EUROMXENE2024 congress at the UPV, and now having this ERC endorses the international visibility of the group in this field with a great future worldwide", emphasises Hermenegildo García.

More on MXenos

The MXenos were discovered in 2011 and have attracted worldwide research attention as electrocatalysts due to their electrical conductivity and high activity for oxygen evolution and reduction and hydrogen evolution. MXenos are also of increasing interest in photocatalysis, mainly as co-catalysts for photoactive semiconductors. Besides, the ideal properties of MXenos as thermal catalysts have been largely unexplored, so there is little precedent for using MXenos to accelerate and control selectivity in chemical reactions.

About Hermenegildo García

Hermenegildo García Gómez (Canals, 1957) advanced his research the Instituto de Tecnología Química and his teaching work at the Department of Chemistry. At ITQ, he works in a multidisciplinary research group that has achieved significant results in converting solar energy into green hydrogen and solar fuels by developing photocatalysts, some of which are based on graphene.

His research group coined the term carbocatalysis, which uses graphene and its derivatives from agricultural waste as heterogeneous catalysts in different chemical processes for transforming CO2 into methanol and related to the storage of electrical energy in supercapacitors.

In 2016, he was awarded the Jaume I Awards for New Technologies, and in 2021, he received the National Research Award in Chemical Science and Technology.

He has published more than 900 articles in scientific journals on chemistry, materials, and the environment and has filed over 70 patents.

ERC Advanced Grants

ERC Advanced Grants are the highest recognition of scientific excellence in Europe. They allow high-level researchers with outstanding achievements over the last decade to carry out ambitious projects, such as the one led by Hermenegildo García, which could lead to significant scientific breakthroughs.