The Water Oxidation Reaction (WOR) is one of the most important reactions on the planet since it is the source of nearly all the atmosphere s oxygen. Understanding its intricacies can hold the key .
Credit: ICIQ
The Water Oxidation Reaction (WOR) is one of the most important reactions on the planet since it is the source of nearly all the atmosphere s oxygen. Understanding its intricacies can hold the key to improve the efficiency of the reaction. Unfortunately, the reaction s mechanisms are complex and the intermediates highly unstable, thus making their isolation and characterisation extremely challenging. To overcome this, scientists are using molecular catalysts as models to understand the fundamental aspects of water oxidation - particularly the oxygen-oxygen bond-forming reaction.
For the first time, scientists in ICIQ s Lloret-Fillol group, who are minutely studying WOR, have isolated and fully characterised an elusive intermediate generated after the oxygen-oxygen bond formation event - the reaction s rate-determining step. The work, an international effort led by ICIQ in collaboration with University of Groningen (The Netherlands) and Synchrotron SOLEIL (France), has
07 Jan 2021 | News
UK-based scientists triumph in first post-Brexit ERC funding round
Researchers based in the UK secure the largest number of grants as the EU’s basic research funding body hands out €8.25 million for proof-of-concept projects
UK-based researchers secured the largest number of grants in the European Research Council’s first post-Brexit €8.25 million funding round for proof-of-concept projects.
Eight of the 55 scientists set to receive the Horizon 2020 funded grants will carry out their research in the UK. However, in a show of the UK’s ability to attract leading scientists, only one of the UK-based applicants is British born.
Britain left the EU on January 1, but these grants will be provided under budgets authorised before Brexit. In its departure agreement in December, the UK indicated it also plans to join the new programme, Horizon Europe. But details of that have yet to be finalised.