Congratulations to Dr. Jim de Ruiter for an Excellent PhD Defense. Jim has successfully defended her PhD thesis, supervised by Prof. Bert Weckhuysen and Dr. Ward van der Stam.

Jim’s PhD thesis examines the catalytic mechanisms of electrochemical CO₂ reduction on copper catalysts using in situ Raman spectroscopy. His research focused on two key areas: how electrochemical oxidation restructures copper and how electrolyte composition affects reaction selectivity. He demonstrated that anodization enhances CO₂ reduction selectivity, with oxidative pulses increasing CO formation up to tenfold and boosting ethylene selectivity two- to sixfold. The mechanism involves copper restructuring, where anodization dissolves copper ions that redeposit as nanoparticles with improved active sites. Jim identified specific Raman signatures associated with C-C coupling intermediates and discovered that *CO insertion into *CHO facilitates C-C coupling at elevated pH. His findings showed that Cs⁺-containing electrolytes exhibited the highest C₂ selectivity, with the Cu-C stretching vibration blue-shifting with cation size. His work provides valuable insights into CO₂ reduction mechanisms over copper catalysts, particularly for C₂+ product formation.

Jim’s PhD thesis is available to read here.