KAUST Catalysis Center

The KAUST Catalysis Center (KCC) is a research center at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST). Its research focuses on a multidisciplinary approach to catalysis. Researchers at the center integrate their efforts into two of the university’s strategic areas, namely energy and environment, alongside a focus on carbon management and hydrogen research.

Established in 2011, KCC aims to develop a multidisciplinary approach to catalysis and tackle the scientific challenges of the twenty-first century. It serves the industrial, agricultural, and consumer sectors, as catalysts are fundamental to a wide range of applications, including sensors, fuel cells, exhaust gas converters, and water purification systems. Developing new catalytic processes across the chemical, petroleum, and emerging energy industries will enhance energy efficiency and reduce waste.

Catalysis is the primary technology for converting raw materials into essential feedstocks for chemical, petroleum, and emerging energy industries. Therefore, the center focuses on developing new catalysts, reactions, and technologies that are crucial for addressing the challenges of societies in the twenty-first century.

The strength of KCC lies in its unique combination of accumulated scientific expertise, encompassing homogeneous, heterogeneous, photocatalysis, and electrocatalysis. Additionally, it integrates expertise from inorganic, organic, organometallic, and polymer chemists, as well as theoretical chemists and reaction engineers. Researchers at KCC have access to a wide range of technologies for characterizing catalysts and catalytic processes at the atomic and molecular levels.

KCC includes several specialized research groups, such as the Advanced Catalytic Materials Group, the Catalysis, Materials, and Engineering Laboratory, the Computational Chemistry Laboratory, the Polymer Synthesis Laboratory, the Functional Nanomaterials Laboratory, the Oxide and Organic Nanomaterials for Energy and Environment Laboratory, the Multiscale Reaction Engineering Laboratory, the Catalysis for Nanomaterials and Spectroscopy Laboratory, the Inorganic Materials and Reactions Group, and the Advanced Catalysis for Sustainable Energy Laboratory.

The center's facilities include various laboratories, such as the Catalytic Testing Laboratory, the High-Throughput Catalysis Laboratory, the Surface Organometallic Chemistry Laboratory, the Joint Laboratory, the Operando Infrared Spectroscopy Laboratory, the Photocatalysis Laboratory, the Constrained Catalytic Technologies Laboratory, and the Homogeneous Catalysis Laboratory.