Dr Volkan Degirmenci

Biography

I work in the field of chemical engineering, with a focus on developing advanced materials for energy storage systems and for converting renewable and waste resources into useful chemicals and fuels. My research involves designing porous materials—such as metal-organic frameworks and zeolites—that act as catalysts to accelerate chemical reactions. These materials are applied in areas such as biomass-to-fuel conversion, battery technologies, and redox flow energy storage systems, as well as in clean electrochemical processes. I use a range of advanced spectroscopy techniques to investigate the structure and function of these materials at the molecular level, providing insights that inform the design of more efficient and sustainable technologies.

Research Interests

• Advanced materials for batteries and redox flow energy storage systems
• Development of porous catalytic materials (e.g. MOFs, hierarchical zeolites) for energy and chemical transformations

• Catalysis for biomass conversion to fuels and platform chemicals (e.g. HMF, FDCA)

• Non-traditional, energy-efficient reactors for electro-, photo-, or biocatalysis

• In-situ and operando spectroscopy (e.g. XAFS, FT-IR, Raman, NMR) to study catalytic mechanisms and material performance

Teaching

I am currently teaching Renewable Energy (IL914) as part of MSc Humanitarian Engineering.

Publications

• Systematic modification of UiO‐66 metal‐organic frameworks for glucose conversion into 5‐hydroxymethyl furfural in water, ChemCatChem 13 (10), 2517-2529, 2021. full text

• Exceptionally Efficient and Recyclable Heterogeneous Metal–Organic Framework Catalyst for Glucose Isomerization in Water, ChemCatChem 10 (4), 651-651, 2018. full text

• Membranes for all vanadium redox flow batteries, Journal of Energy Storage 32, 101754. full text

• Gallium and tin exchanged Y zeolites for glucose isomerisation and 5-hydroxymethyl furfural production, Applied Catalysis A: General 605, 117798. full text

 Full list of publications can be reached here.

Projects and Grants