As a part of the NordCO2 consortiums’ exchange program, I had a wonderful opportunity to be a part of a research collaboration between Prof. Egill Skúlason at the University of Iceland and Assoc. Prof. Ainara Nova at the University of Oslo. The collaboration aimed to explore the CO2 conversion capabilities of Metal encapsulated Metal-organic frameworks. This research allowed me to visit Hylleraas Centre for Quantum Molecular Sciences at the University of Oslo. Oslo was a beautiful city and Hylleraas Centre had a great scientific community with regular meetings and frequent talks by experts. The collaboration was a great success and over the past year I visited Oslo twice for a month and another much longer visit is on hold due to the pandemic and I cannot wait to return.
The exchange program allowed me to learn about hydrogenation reactions over metal functionalized metal−organic frameworks, Micro kinetic modelling, CP2K code and modelling of reaction mechanisms. I had many interesting discussions with Ainara and Dr. Torstein Fjermestad and learnt many techniques that made my life easier as a computational chemist. I also had the opportunity to learn more about experimental chemistry in various discussions with Prof. Unni Olsbye and her group, this gave me great insights and appreciation for the work I do. I would say this was a great experience and I hope to be part of many more such endeavours.
I strongly suggest my fellow students to take advantage of the exchange program.