Nuria Lopez

Núria López is a Spanish chemist who is Professor of Chemistry at the Institute of Chemical Research of Catalonia (ICIQ). She was awarded the Spanish Royal Society of Chemistry Prize for Excellence in 2015.

Early life and education López studied chemistry at the University of Barcelona. She completed both her bachelor's and doctoral degrees there, earning a PhD in theoretical chemistry in 1999. López joined the Technical University of Denmark (DTU) Center for Atomic-scale Materials Physics, where she worked in the laboratory of Jens Nørskov.

Research and career In 2001 López returned to Barcelona and became a Ramón y Cajal fellow at the University of Barcelona. Her research makes use of atomistic simulations using the Barcelona Supercomputing Center to understand the fundamental mechanisms that underpin heterogeneous catalysis. She looks to design more efficient, selective and sustainable materials for heterogeneous catalysis, with a focus in improving selectivity and gold catalysis. She showed that it is possible to rearrange sugar atoms using a molybdenum catalyst and a ruthenium catalysed hydrogenation step. In these electrolysers the oxidation of water takes place close to the anode, which conventionally presents a bottleneck to device operation. By placing a magnet (nickel zinc ferrite) close to the anode, her group were able to show that the evolution of oxygen, and the associated production of hydrogen, could be achieved at low potentials, saving considerable amounts of energy. It is understood that this occurs because the magnetic layer acts to align electron spins close to the anode, which controls the spin state of the electrons in oxygen, ensuring that the spins are correctly aligned for the formation of an oxygen-oxygen bond. For the reaction she used earth-abundant catalysts, including nickel and iron. The magnet required to double hydrogen output cost less than $10.

Selected publications