Welcome to the Estes Group

Laboratory for molecular heterogeneous catalysis at the University of Stuttgart

New Paper in ChemCatChem

Hydrogen spillover to create new Mo(V)-OH sites is critical for the catalytic activity of Ru/Mo catalyzed hydrodeoxygenation of biomass derivatives. 

Welcome Misha Kumari to the group!

Misha joined the group in October 2025 and will be working on immobilizing electrocatalysts on surfaces and we wish her great success in this endeavor!

Congratulations Dr. Wimmer!

Erik Wimmer defended his PhD thesis in March 2026 on the topic of enyne cycloisomerizations catalyzed by immobilized Pd-H and Pt-H complexes. We wish him all the best for his future career!

New Paper in Organometallics

Palladium hydride complexes were confined inside of mesoporous silica materials that had been decorated with carboxylic acids by oxidative addition of the OH groups to Pd(0) complexes. Here we show that in certain circumstances these confined catalysts show much higher conversions and selectivities than the corresponding homogeneous catalysts for enyne cycloisomerization reactions. 

Flash Presentation

Osman Bunjaku presented his research into PCET reactions to vanadium oxide surfaces and their relationship to selective oxidation catalysis at the German Catalysis Conference in Weimar. Great job, Osman!

Welcome to the Estes Group

We do research into immobilizing molecular catalysts on heterogeneous metal oxide surfaces in order to both improve the performance of molecular catalysts but also learn about the interplay between metals and supports. Our group members are experts in not only organometallic synthesis but also in other topics ranging from materials synthesis, spectroscopic measurements (especially solid-state NMR and X-ray absorption spectroscopy), and in physical measurements such as reaction kinetics and thermodynamic measurements. Please check our publications and research topics as we are always looking for new group members on the Bachelor, Master, PhD, and postdoc level.

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