Welcome to the website of the Barta Group!
Research Interests
Research in the Barta group is centered around sustainability and Green Chemistry with a special focus on the conversion of renewable resources and catalysis using earth-abundant metals. Two main research lines are being pursued:
1.) Synthesis and characterization of novel heterogeneous catalysis for the cleavage of crude lignocellulose resources, including lignocellulose pre-treatment and characterization
2.) New homogeneous catalytic methods for the atom-economic functionalization of the obtained building blocks.
A variety of research lines include reductive and hydrogen-neutral depolymerisation and defunctionalization of lignin to aromatic monomers. Similarly, reductive approaches using copper catalysts are used for the conversion of cellulose and derived platform chemicals to a variety of end products. Here, the central aim is to find new concepts that allow to deal with complexity and changed material inputs and to identify causes of and minimize side reactions which lead to decreased product yields. In addition, we are involved in developing new methods for iron-catalysed coupling of alcohols and amines as well as hydrogenation of carbonyl compounds including esters also in an asymmetric fashion.
Our labs are located at the Institute of Chemistry, University of Graz, Austria.
The Group
News
We are beyond happy to announce that we were selected by the European Innovation Council (EIC) as one of the receivers of the 2.5 million euros grant awarded to take breakthrough projects into real life.
Foto: Uni Graz/Tzivanopoulos
The PureSurf initiative produces “green” surfactants from waste products and aims to found a spin-off company at the University of Graz. Check the latest news about PureSurf on the EU Trending Topics and on the University of Graz website.
We are proud to announce that our recent publication on bio-based polymers from paper industry waste made it to the homepage of the University of Graz! Congratulations to the authors who conducted this exciting research. Enjoy the read!
Congratulations to Dr. Anastasiia Afanasenko (now post-doc at McGill University in Canada) for receiving the Merit Scholarship for foreign students (PBEEE 2021-2022)!
A news piece was published on the website of the Institute of Chemistry about our research group!
Read more here: Gut Holz!
We are happy to announce that Katalin has joined ChemSusChem as a new Chair of the Editorial Board!
Read more in the editorial: A Fresh Look at Sustainable Chemistry, by Dr. David J. Smith
You can access the article, written by Prof. Katalin Barta Weissert, here: Project Repository Journal, Volume 5, April 2020, Pages 74-75
or
Cleave and couple: Sustainable Routes to Bio-based Amines – CatASus Project Dissemination
The past few months were incredibly busy, beside everything else, we moved! A fantastic and ongoing team effort to build up our new labs at the Institute of Chemistry, University of Graz. Stay tuned for more exciting research from this new location!
Closing session of #GRClignin with the motto "you can make anything from lignin... including money...with help from process engineering" https://t.co/Uk9DKCBQtL
Great talks from PhD students and post-docs. Bright minds tackling challanges of the future! Smart materials, electrochemical biomass conversion, lignin biosynthesis... https://t.co/k3fdYgXIaP
