Prof. Estes is originally from a small town in southwest Oklahoma in the USA. He studied chemistry at the University of Oklahoma, where he earned his Bachelor’s degree in 2009. He then joined the group of Prof. Jack Norton at Columbia University studying PCET reactions from first-row transition metal hydrides, receiving his Ph.D. in 2014. He then moved to ETH Zürich as an ETH-Marie Curie postdoctoral fellow in the group of Prof. Christophe Copéret where he remained until 2017. Here he gained experience in surface organometallic chemistry that still plays a large role in his work today. He then moved on to a second postdoctoral stay in the group of Prof. Walter Leitner, first at the RWTH Aachen then at the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Energy Conversion in Mülheim an der Ruhr. In this time, he gained experience in the hydrogenation of CO2 and the principles of green chemistry, which also still play a role in his research today. Then in 2019, he joined the Faculty of Chemistry at the University of Stuttgart as a Tenure-Track professor studying molecular heterogeneous catalysis. In the fall of 2026, he was awarded tenure and promoted to full professor (W3). Since 2022, he has also served as the deputy speaker of the CRC 1333 on Molecular Heterogeneous Catalysts in confined geometries. He was also awarded the 2023 Fulbright-Cottrell Award, and is active in the Cottrell network. He is also a proud member of the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma.

In his free time, he enjoys spending time with his wife and cats, playing and listening to classical music, hiking in the mountains, and foraging for mushrooms.

Office: Pfaffenwaldring 55, 0.814
Phone: +49 711 685
Email: wael.barakat@itc.uni-stuttgart.de

CRC1333 – Project B05

Copper hydrides are widely used catalyst in different reactions such as CO2 hydrogenation, hydrosilylation, and hydroboration. For that purpose, we are trying to synthesize a mononuclear Cu-H complexes in Lewis acidic mesoporous materials such as covalent organic frameworks (COFs) or mesoporous metal oxides and investigate the effect of confinement on activity and selectivity for gas-phase CO2 hydrogenation.

Immobilized Ruthenium Hydride Complexes for CO2 Reduction under Confinement Effects.

Office: Pfaffenwaldring 55, 1.840
Phone: +49 711 685 64306
Email: michael.benz@itc.uni-stuttgart.de 

Heterogeneous flow-reactor testing on the reduction of CO₂ to Methanol with special focus on spillover and interactions of the reducible metal oxide supports. Investigations on isolated intermediates by molecular models of hydrogen spillover and reduction tests with CO2 in batch reactions.

Office: Pfaffenwaldring 55, 1.840
Phone: +49 711 60048
Email: osman.bunjaku@itc.uni-stuttgart.de

Surface chemistry on catalysts is a complex process in which many parameters influence the kinetics and selectivity. By using hydride complexes, we aim to model hydrogen spillover from known catalyst systems to gain a deeper understanding and improve these systems.

Office: Pfaffenwaldring 55, 7.563
Phone: +49 711 64306
Email: mustafa.turan@itc.uni-stuttgart.de

Turning lignin into fuel. Studying the mechanisms of hydrodeoxygenation with the help of hydrogen-spillover.

Office: Pfaffenwaldring 55, 1.840
Phone: +49 711 60067
Email: zeki.beydeda@itc.uni-stuttgart.de

The Oxo-process is one of the most prominent homogeneously catalyzed reactions on an industrial scale, with production capacities exceeding 10 Mio tons per year. Currently applied catalysts employ either less expensive Co based catalysts with a poor reactivity or highly reactive but very expensive Rh based catalysts.

In contrast, we are synthesizing and investigating supported Platinum-Tin based catalysts for the hydroformylation reaction. We aim to increase the reactivity of these catalysts and gain insights in the mechanistic details surrounding the Pt-Sn system.

Office: Pfaffenwaldring 55, 7.563
Phone: +49 711 69067
Email: ferdinand.ertmann@itc.uni-stuttgart.de

Office: Pfaffenwaldring 55, 7.563
Phone: +49 711 60058
Email: noah.schellander@itc.uni-stuttgart.de

Manganese oxide (MnO2) and manganese-based materials are promising oxygen evolution reaction (OER) catalysts due to their abundance, structural versatility and catalytic activity.

We investigate how proton-electron transfer (PET) reactions, induced by controlled reduction with hydrogen donors, influence the oxidation state and activity of Mn centers. By comparing chemically reduced states to those formed during electrocatalysis, we aim to identify active sites and establish correlations between Mn valence states and OER performance.

Office: Pfaffenwaldring 55, U1 848
Phone: +49 711 60012
Email: misha.kumari@itc.uni-stuttgart.de

 Investigating the ATR with immobilizable catalysts.

Office: Pfaffenwaldring 55, 1.840
Phone: +49 711 685 64069
Email: sarah.maier@itc.uni-stuttgart.de

Cu-catalyzed atom transfer radical addition reactions (ATRA) enable the versatile functionalization of alkenes and the simple synthesis of functionalized lactones and lactams. However, their disadvantage is that they often require high catalyst loadings, which makes them unsuitable for industrial processes. Polymerization reactions are a special case in which tailor-made polymers can be produced with low catalyst loading.
Since the redox process between Cu(I) and Cu(II) is reversible, it is possible to regenerate deactivated catalysts after the reaction if they can be separated intact and cleanly from the reaction mixture. This is made possible by immobilized catalysts, which are therefore an important tool for making ATRA reactions more sustainable and efficient

Office: Pfaffenwaldring 55, 1.840
Phone: +49 711 685 64309
Email: erik.wimmer@itc.uni-stuttgart.de

CRC1333 – Project B08 – Probing Confinement Enhanced Precatalyst Association in Pd Catalyzed Enyne Cycloisomerizations by Advanced NMR Spectroscopy

We are investigating and synthesizing platinum and palladium hydrides for enhanced catalytic reactions, particularly (enantio-)selective enyne cycloisomerization. This investigation aims to enhance reactions through innovative catalyst immobilization, fostering deeper mechanistic understanding.