Welcome to the Cluster of Excellence "Unifying Concepts in Catalysis"

We carry out research in the field of catalysis. Our future-related research topics range from energy supply, including natural gas and bio-hydrogen, to the development of new agents.  

The Cluster of Excellence "Unifying Concepts in Catalysis" (UniCat) was founded in 2007 within the framework of the Excellence Initiative launched by the German Federal and State Governments. More than 250 chemists, physicists, biologists and engineers of 4 universities and 2 Max Planck research institutes are involved in this research network in Berlin and Potsdam.

We bring together the different perspectives on and strengths of heterogeneous, homogeneous and biological catalysis. Our key objective is to identify catalytic concepts based on a molecular understanding of systems and to utilise this for the development of novel and more efficient catalysts to be transferred to technological applications.  

Our current research topics are:

• oxidative transformations of methane (natural gas) to ethene
• biological hydrogen production and hydrogen driven fuel cells, and
• the development of novel antibiotics.    

UniCat is organised into three cross-linked research areas:  

A) Bridging the materials gap in complex catalysis
B) "Intelligent" natural and artificial enzymes
C) Complex reaction engineering.