Markus Antonietti

Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces, Research Campus Golm, D-14424 Potsdam, Germany, antonietti@mpikg.mpg.de

Polymeric graphitic Carbon Nitride can be made from urea under early-Earth conditions, as reported already by Justus Liebig in 1832. It just recently turned out to be a valuable extension to current semiconducting organic materials. This is due to the ease of synthesis, but also due to its extreme chemical stability. The resulting heterogeneous organocatalysts can- among other reactions- chemically activate CO2 or photochemically split water into hydrogen and oxygen. This opens the door to artificial photosynthesis on a sustainable and most abundant polymer base.

I will also present first schemes on generalizing the electronic properties of C3N4 to  differently composed C/N-materials, successfully mimicking oxidation enzymes with high conversions and selectivity. The“hybridization” with enzymes via cofactor coupling allows synthesizing more complex molecules photochemically, as shown by the chiral reduction of ketones by light.

Extension of the principles beyond biological conditions leads to novel organocatalytic reactions with high potential for synthesis as such.

Markus Antonietti is Director of the Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces and has contributed with about 650 papers to the field of material/polymer chemistry in the last 30 years. His work was appreciated with a number of honours, and his current work is cited more than 8000 times/year, with an H-index of 130. Besides being a passionate scientist and academic teacher, he loves cooking and playing in a Rock’n’Roll band.