ERC Advanced Grant 2023 | Project ID: 101141466
DISCOVERY is a frontier research project funded by the European Research Council (ERC) under the Advanced Grant scheme. It explores a bold new direction in the field of thermal catalysis, focusing on a revolutionary family of two-dimensional materials called MXenes.
While MXenes have gained attention for their electrical conductivity and unique surface chemistry, they have remained largely unexplored in thermal catalytic applications—a domain where chemical reactions are driven by heat rather than light or electricity. DISCOVERY aims to change that by unlocking the full catalytic potential of MXenes for processes crucial to the green energy transition.
The project will tackle some of the most challenging and energy-intensive chemical transformations in the context of sustainability and decarbonization, offering new strategies to replace fossil fuel-based processes with more efficient, environmentally friendly alternatives.
DISCOVERY is based at the Instituto de Tecnología Química (ITQ), a joint research center between the Universitat Politècnica de València (UPV) and the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC), located in Valencia, Spain.
The project is led by Prof. Hermenegildo García, an internationally recognized expert in catalysis, nanomaterials, and photochemistry. Under his leadership, the research team brings together multidisciplinary expertise in materials science, catalysis, computational chemistry, and spectroscopy.
DISCOVERY is powered by a multidisciplinary and international team of scientists, and researchers with expertise in catalysis, materials science, nanotechnology, computational chemistry, and spectroscopy.
Led by Prof. Hermenegildo García, the team includes senior scientists, postdoctoral researchers, PhD candidates, and technical staff.
This collective of talented individuals brings creativity, dedication, and scientific rigor to every stage of the project, from theoretical design to experimental testing.
The DISCOVERY project spans five years (2024–2029). During this time, the team will design, synthesize, and test new MXene-based materials for specific thermal catalytic reactions, while developing advanced characterization methods and AI-based predictive tools.
What Are the Goals?
The energy sector is undergoing a profound transformation. As we shift away from fossil fuels, there is a critical need for efficient, selective, and sustainable catalytic processes. Traditional catalysts—often based on rare or expensive materials—have reached performance plateaus, and new material classes are needed to meet future demands.
DISCOVERY was created to:
Pioneering Use of MXenes: Most MXene research has focused on electrochemical and photocatalytic applications. DISCOVERY is the first major project dedicated to thermal catalysis using MXenes.
High-Risk, High-Reward Approach: The project embraces the ERC spirit of scientific ambition, venturing into uncharted territory with the potential for disruptive innovation.
Multidisciplinary Strategy: Combining experimental chemistry, physics, AI, and theoretical modeling provides a holistic and cutting-edge approach to materials discovery.
Global Impact: If successful, DISCOVERY could reshape industrial catalysis, enabling cleaner production of fuels and chemicals, reducing CO₂ emissions, and supporting the EU’s climate goals.
Who Will Benefit?
Hermenegildo García, scientific leader of HG Energy, has been awarded a new Proof of Concept Grant from the European Research Council (ERC) for the project MXClean – Green Bottom-Up Synthesis of MXenes. This is the second ERC grant awarded to Prof. García, following the ERC Advanced Grant he received in 2024 for the Discovery project.
MXClean will explore a more sustainable and scalable synthesis route for MXenes—nanostructured materials with wide-ranging potential applications in energy storage, hydrogen production, and biomedicine. Unlike current processes, the proposed method avoids the use of hazardous and polluting agents, offering an environmentally responsible alternative.
MXenes are a fast-growing family of two-dimensional carbides and nitrides with unique properties such as high electrical conductivity, mechanical strength, hydrophilicity, and tunable surface chemistry. These features make them highly attractive for energy storage, electromagnetic interference (EMI) shielding, catalysis, and flexible electronics. Yet their synthesis remains the main barrier to industrial adoption.
Conventional top-down routes based on hydrofluoric acid (HF) etching of MAX phases are hazardous, energy-intensive, and compositionally rigid. In parallel, several bottom-up strategies such as chemical vapor deposition (CVD), plasma-enhanced pulsed layer deposition (PEPLD), template methods, or direct synthesis have been explored. While safer, these methods face major drawbacks including high energy requirements, poor structural control, low reproducibility, and limited scalability.
This ERC-PoC project will address this unmet need by developing a novel bottom-up synthesis route that bypasses MAX phases and overcomes the limitations of existing alternatives. Building on preliminary results from the ERC-AG DISCOVERY, our approach assembles MXenes directly from molecular precursors under moderate conditions, reducing energy demand, eliminating hazardous by-products, and enabling access to compositions that are otherwise difficult to obtain, such as nitride-based MXenes.
The project will demonstrate feasibility through two case studies: Ti₃C₂ as a benchmark and Ti₂N as a representative nitride MXene. By proving reproducibility, scalability to multi-gram batches, and industrial relevance, the project will create a unique opportunity to position MXenes as safer, more versatile, and industrially viable materials. Thanks to this breakthrough, MXenes could finally progress from research laboratories to real-world applications in high-value markets.
The DISCOVERY project is committed to open science. All relevant datasets, models, and supplementary research materials will be published here for public access and reuse.
