The Seminars of the Department of Physical and Macromolecular Chemistry are back, and in the upcoming semester they will be organized in the following way: There are going to be guest speakers and PhD students presenting during the semester.
The lectures will take place on Wednesdays in building of Chemical departments (Hlavova 8, Praha 2) at 14:00 in lecture room CH3
We warmly invite all students and attendees to join the presentation competition for Master’s and Ph.D. students of our department! Come support your colleagues, get inspired by their research projects, and participate in discussions with experts in the field. The conference will be held on the 11th of February in the lecture hall CH2.
For more details, visit https://physchem.cz/news/cnf2025/.
by Prof., Jean-Pierre Gilson
After a short introduction highlighting the current importance of zeolites in oil refining and petrochemistry, I will introduce the "Zeolite Crystal Engineering" as practiced in Caen. Nanosized zeolites are just one facet of Zeolite Crystal Engineering where the properties of a particular structure are tuned to meet the requirements of specific applications.
Nanozeolites are not only a laboratory invention but a commercial reality that found its place in catalytic processes and separations by adsorption. However, as potentially new applications of zeolites in the energy transition will push them outside their current comfort zone (i.e. working at high T in very endothermic reactions or working in hot water conditions), their resilience to extreme environment will be tested.
I will use two examples, one in catalysis (CH4 upgrading to H2 and aromatics) and one in adsorption (selective CO2 adsorption from a CH4/CO2 mixture) to highlight their potential and illustrate the challenges encountered.
Finally, I will show promising results leading to the use of nanozeolites in glioblastoma (a debilitating form of brain cancer) theragnostic.
by FRS FRSE FRSC FLSW, Russell Edward Morris
To officially open the new AFM/SEM laboratory at the faculty, we will have a program of presentations followed by an open discussion and a tour of the new facility.
by Dr., Dorothea Wisser
Solid-state NMR spectroscopy is one of the most powerful techniques and a thriving field of methodological advances for atomic level characterization of materials, small molecules and biologic matter. In the Wisser solid-state NMR group at FAU Erlangen-Nürnberg, we take a close look at the surfaces and interfaces in modern, functional materials and catalysts.
Chemistry happens at these interfaces, therefore we want to obtain a molecular understanding of structures and active centers and their impact on function and reactivity. We further develop methods for real time observation, under in situ and operando conditions of chemical reactions and catalysis.
Examples of our current research on Supported Ionic Liquid Phase catalysts, carbon-based materials and metal-organic frameworks will be presented.
by prof. Ing., DrSc., Jiří Čejka
You are warmly invited to attend the departmental seminar next week (CH3, wednesday at 14:00), which will involve a presentation and discussion with Prof. Jiří Čejka.
It will cover topics of science, career, grants, choosing a group and a field, and other interesting subjects related to the academic life. There will be a question and answer session afterwards, to which you are encouraged to bring your questions, whether about industry or academia.
Short presentations from five Masters' students about their scientific work
Mankind has always needed energy, and we consume more energy than any of the past generations. Do we have any particular requirements on the energy supply? And how shall we eventually reach those requirements? Is Europe, and the Czech Republic, keeping pace with the rest of the world? Is Europe the only continent to spend money on renewables?
You are invited to attend next week's seminar on Wednesday 06.11, at 14:00 in CH3, which will include short presentations from five Masters' students on their ongoing research projects.
There may even be more halloween candy..
In the past decade, we have witnessed significant advancements in NMR hardware, including the availability of ultra-high magnetic fields (>28 Tesla) and specialized magic angle spinning (MAS) probes capable of rotating solid samples at ultra-high frequencies (up to 150 kHz). These developments open up new opportunities for obtaining highly resolved proton NMR spectra of solids, but they also present new challenges for existing experimental techniques and the design of new pulse sequences.
In this habilitation lecture, I will focus on the design of new and improved experiments in solid-state NMR using optimal control methods. Unlike the traditional approach, which relies on analytical theories and manual development of quantum mechanics for each case, numerical optimizations allow for automated design and simple testing of new ideas. Our work has focused on multidimensional spectroscopy of solid protein samples, where we have developed, for the first time, transverse mixing recoupling elements (TROP). These pulse sequence blocks systematically enhance sensitivity by a factor of for each indirectly sampled spectral dimension, accelerating the acquisition of emerging 5D spectra by an order of magnitude.
Gilson-2025.pdf 
