Arenberg Doctoral School, Faculty of Science, KU Leuven, Leuven 3000 (Belgium) The Rector of KU Leuven has the honor of inviting you to attend the public defense of the doctoral dissertation of (ir.) Anupam Yadav Title of the doctoral dissertation: Unravelling the active sites in metal cluster-based oxidation catalysts De ontrafeling van de actieve centra in oxidatiekatalysatoren bestaande uit nanoclusters The public defence will take place on 1st Februray 2021 at 16:30 in the Aula van de Tweede Hoofdwet, Castle Arenberg Park 41 at Heverlee, Belgium Board of examiners Prof dr Peter Lievens Dr Didier Grandjean Prof dr Bart Goderis Promoter Department of Physics and Astronomy KU Leuven Co-promoter Department of Physics and Astronomy KU Leuven Chairman Department of Chemistry KU Leuven Prof dr Ib Chorkendorff Dr Olga Safanova Department of Physics Technical University of Denmark (DTU) Super_XAS beamline Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI) Prof dr Christophe Detavernier Prof dr Johan Hofkens Dr Deepak Pant Prof dr Margriet Van Bael Department of Chemistry KU Leuven VITO Department of Physics and Astronomy KU Leuven Department of Physics Ghent University Abstract of the doctoral research Development of superior catalytic systems has been limited by the lack of precisely synthesized model catalysts that can aid in establishing the active catalyst structures under reaction conditions In this dissertation, I discuss with illustrative examples applications and impact of new nanocluster-based model systems in the field of catalysis We design highly homogeneous oxidation catalysts by depositing well-defined gaseous single metal and alloy clusters with neat surfaces directly on supports using an innovative Cluster Beam Deposition technology We achieve high catalytic performance towards oxidation of small molecules such as methanol, dopamine and carbon monoxide while maintaining extremely low metal loadings (ppm concentrations) To understand the origin of this high activity and durability, we probe nanocluster structures and chemical properties using a combination of mass spectrometry, electron microscopy, X-ray and infrared spectroscopies Besides, experimentally guided DFT models are used to systematically describe process-structure-activity relationships We extract reliable information on the nature and location of the active phase (sites) in metal nanocluster-based oxidation catalysts Very importantly, new phenomena are observed experimentally at the nanoclusters surface (such as pure metal skin formation on alloy cores) or within these nanoclusters (composition dependent chemical ordering) and explained Taken together, this work highlights how the field of cluster beam deposition is expanding into new applications, specifically toward design, integration and upscaling of supported metal nanoclusterbased catalysts that may bring promising technology applications in the future Brief CV Anupam is a Marie Curie PhD researcher at KU Leuven His PhD has a strong focus on design, testing and implementation of deposited metal nanoclusterbased catalyst Prior to this he completed his engineering degree in nanotechnology at Amity University, India (University Gold Medalist) He did his bachelor thesis project at McGill University, Canada and master thesis project at KAUST, Saudi Arabia He is the recipient of Marie Curie Fellowship and Canadian MITACS Globalink Fellowship, 2012 Please RSVP for live streaming by 29th January 2021 at anupam.yadav@kuleuven.be