Xiaoyu Chen (KTH to AU, Jan.-Feb. 2019)
It was decided during the NordCO2 meeting in November 2018 that I should visit Prof. Daasbjerg’s group at AU – Since we did calculations on their Co(TPP)/CNT system it make sense to have closer contact with the experimentalists to see what we come out.
As a computational chemist, I have not been in the lab since I started my master in 2015. However, at Aarhus University not only was I able to observe people running all sorts of fancy CO2 chemistry, but also was given chance to do my own experiments and hence test my theoretical hypothesis – Does a wider nanotube indeed enhance the performance of Co(TPP)? And it was a success! The collaboration resulted in a recent publication in Organometallics.
Special thank goes to Assist. Prof. Xinming Hu, who was essentially my mentor during my time in Aarhus. It was so much fun working in the lab as well as meeting the collection of Andreas and Magnuser in the group.
Apart from the research, I managed to be there for Prof. Steen Pedersen’s birthday and had a taste of this very traditional Danish cake. It did look a bit sad after a while!
On the last day I managed to visit the famous ARoS Museum to appreciate some art. Thank NordCO2 for providing this experience, it was a pleasure and I certainly recommend the others to take part.