Catalysis affects nearly all areas of chemistry and chemical industries. For instance, about 80% of chemical products are manufactured with the aid of catalysis. Catalysis is also a key technology for sustainable development since it ensures more efficient use of finite natural resources and has an integral part in some of our most important pollution control and environmental cleanup processes. However, the development of efficient catalytic materials is often limited by our lack of knowledge about the structure of surface sites and their interactions with various substrates. Recent developments in solid-state NMR spectroscopy (including high magnetic field, Dynamic Nuclear Polarization, in situ techniques, advanced pulse sequences…) have opened new avenues for the characterization of catalytic materials and have provided key insights into their structures down to the molecular level.

The interdisciplinary symposium “Catalysis by Design using NMR” aims at presenting the most recent advances in both areas of research, at bringing together international experts of catalysis and NMR spectroscopy and at fostering collaborations and exchanges between these two communities.