RESEARCH PROFILE

Bianca Ligt is a doctoral candidate (PhD) in electrochemistry and catalysis under the supervision of prof.dr.ir. Emiel Hensen and dr. Marta Costa Figueiredo. Her current research focuses on the development of Cu-based electrocatalysts for the electrochemical reduction of CO2 to C2+ products, such as ethylene and ethanol. Unfortunately, current Cu-based electrocatalysts show a relatively poor selectivity towards these desired products. The utilization of several (electrochemical) characterization techniques aids to understand the nature of the active sites of the catalysts in order to enhance the C2+ product selectivity. The ultimate goal is to implement an active and stable Cu-based electrocatalyst in a gas diffusion electrode to operate in a flow cell electrolyzer under industrial relevant conditions.

ACADEMIC BACKGROUND

Bianca Ligt received her B.Sc. and M.Sc. in Chemical Engineering and Chemistry at Eindhoven University of Technology, the Netherlands. During her M.Sc. project, she studied the CO oxidation acitivity on Pd-ceria catalysts. After the project, she did an industrial internship at Shell Technology Centre Amsterdam (STCA) for 5 months. She worked on the synthesis and characterization of catalysts for CO2 hydrogenation. Afterwards, she started as a PhD candidate in the Inorganic Chemistry & Catalysis group at Eindhoven University of Technology in 2020. Her expertise is on catalyst synthesis, electrode preparation and material characterization.

Ancillary Activities

No ancillary activities