Lights – camera – catalysis!

Like thousands of chemists worldwide, Bert Weckhuysen is a keen photographer. More unusually, however, he has found a way to bring his hobby and his research together. For over 15 years he has aimed to understand the mechanisms of catalysis through taking photos and videos of catalysts in action. The long-term aim of this work is to build a unique and powerful ‘camera’ that can image catalysis at macro, meso and micro scales, from the reactor level down to interactions between single atoms and molecules.