The high temperature lab of Fang Liu

Fang Liu came from China to join the international research group Inorganic Chemistry and Catalysis. Her high pressure lab allows an extremely high temperature.

Who are you and what do you do?
My name is Fang Liu. I'm a girl from Henan province, China. After I finished my master in inorganic chemistry, I started getting interested in catalysis. Therefore, I decided to go abroad to broaden my expertise on catalysis. Currently, I am a PhD candidate in the Inorganic Chemistry and Catalysis group, under the supervision of Pieter Bruijnincx and Bert Weckhuysen.

Where is this workplace?
My lab is located in the David de Wiedgebouw, more precisely in the high pressure lab, which allows performing high temperature (e.g. 220 °C) and high pressure (e.g. 30 bar) experiments.

What is special about this workplace or about your research?
My research group is an international group. PhDs and postdocs with different academic backgrounds from over 15 countries are working together. People in our group have different projects but collaborate with each other.

For instance, the aim of my project is converting biomass derivatives into value-added chemicals effectively. Biomass is a promising solution for the worldwide rapid energy consumption problem.

However, to tailor an efficient catalyst for biomass conversion, deactivation modes caused by various reasons should be pointed out in advance. For this, I need to collaborate with people working on microscopy. Working in this nice group is a great place for self-improvement.