Diego García-López (UiT to UiO, Jan.-Mar. 2019)
Being part of the NordCO2 consortium allowed me to do a two-month stay at the University of Oslo to collaborate with Michele Cascella and Ainara Nova. Michele has a widespread background in the field of Molecular Dynamics, a computational technique that is much used to simulate intermolecular interactions in biological systems, but scarcely employed in an organometallic context. Within the framework of Molecular Dynamics it is possible to study the interplay of atoms throughout time, enabling a much broader exploration of the chemical scenery. Using these methods, we studied CO2-related reactions using this technique, and we hope to come up with fruitful results very soon.
Ainara Nova and her group is indeed familiar with the conversion of CO2 into valuable chemicals. She often collaborates with experimental chemists in order to disclose the mechanism of newly discovered reactions. Moreover, her group’s last studies include microkinetic models to validate their computational findings. Overall, it has been a great experience and I have learnt a lot from Michele, Ainara and their co-workers.
I would strongly recommend any visit to one of the NordCO2 groups forming the consortium since it can give you the opportunity to find new collaborators, expand your interests and, above all, improve the way you can tackle your research.
