Research Profile

 

For 70 years, the Leibniz Institute for Catalysis e.V. (LIKAT) in Rostock has been conducting catalysis research for the benefit of society. The institute was founded in 1952 as the first research institute in Europe dedicated exclusively to catalysis. Among the milestones of LIKAT research was the commercialization of the process for the production of Isicom, a Parkinson's drug, in 1986 as the world's second process for organometallic chiral catalysis. Today, LIKAT in Rostock is one of the largest publicly funded research institutes in its field in Europe and occupies a place at the interface of basic research and its applications. The institute was admitted to the Leibniz Association in 2003. Today, it combines homogeneous and heterogeneous catalysis research as well as complementary current fields, e.g. photocatalysis and electrocatalysis, under one roof.

In its strategy LIKAT 2030 - Catalysis Research for Resource Conservation & Closing of Circular Flow Streams, LIKAT formulates clear research goals for the funding period 2023-2030.

Catalysis is a key technology for sustainable processes, inherently enabling resource and energy efficiency. Catalysts control and accelerate chemical and biochemical processes. They increase yields and avoid by-products by enabling starting materials to react specifically and selectively at the molecular level. Today, more than 80% of all chemical products in our daily lives are produced with the help of catalytic processes. Increasingly, catalytic applications are found not only in chemistry, but also in life sciences, energy supply, and climate and environmental protection. The spectrum of research work at LIKAT ranges from the identification of suitable catalyst materials, their production, kinetic and mechanistic studies to the development or optimization of industrially relevant processes.