Katarzyna Morawa Eblagon is a post- doctoral researcher in LSRE-LCM laboratory working on the project titled “Novel bifunctional carbon based catalysts for sustainable production of fuels and chemicals from cellulose via cascade reactions” in the framework of a post-doctoral grant founded by FCT. She earned her master degree in Materials Engineering from the Faculty of Materials Science and Ceramics of the University of Science and Technology (AGH-UST) in Cracow, Poland in 2005. From 2005 to 2006 she joined the Department of Ceramics of AGH-UST as teaching assistant and a research fellow. Later, she moved to United Kingdom, where she started her doctorate studies at Wolfson Catalysis Centre, in the Department of Chemistry, at University of Oxford. In 2011, she obtained her PhD degree in the area of Application of Heterocyclic Compounds for Hydrogen Storage, under the supervision of Professor S.C. Edman Tsang. The PhD project was jointly carried out with the ISIS neutron source, situated at the Appleton Laboratory in Headington UK, where a part of the materials were characterized using the Inelastic Neutron Scattering Spectrometry (INS). During her PhD studies, she has worked at Department of Chemistry and Shanghai Key Laboratory of Molecular Catalysis and Innovative Materials at Fudan University, China, where she carried out characterisation of supported noble metal catalysts. She has also completed an internship at EMPA National Laboratories for Materials Science and Research in Duebendorf, Switzerland, where she worked on the assignment of chemical structures of aromatic intermediates using advanced NMR techniques. In 2011, she moved to Portugal and spent two years as a post-doctoral researcher at LEPAE at Faculty of Chemical Engineering, University of Porto, working on the Development of the Catalysts for Methanol Steam Reforming. In 2013, she has joined the LSRE-LCM team as a post-doctoral fellow, and started her work on the Biomass Valorisation via Cascade Reactions.

RESEARCH INTERESTS

The scientific interest is focussed on nanostructured carbon materials and catalytic technologies for sustainability (renewable raw materials; fine chemicals). In particular:
- development of novel catalytic processes for utilization of biomass
- design of nanostructured bifunctional catalysts for selective oxidations and catalytic dehydration (mainly to produce fuel precursors directly from biomass-derived carbohydrates)
- functionalization and characterization of carbon materials for application as metal-free catalysts

SELECTED PUBLICATIONS

K. Morawa Eblagon, M.F.R. Pereira, J.L.Figueiredo. One-pot oxidation of cellobiose to gluconic acid. Unprecedented high selectivity on bifunctional gold catalysts over mesoporous carbon by integrated texture and surface chemistry optimization. Applied Catalysis B: Environmental, 184, 381-396, 2016 K.M. Eblagon, S.C.E. Tsang. Structure-reactivity relationship in catalytic hydrogenation of heterocyclic compounds over ruthenium black. Part B: Effect of carbon substitution by heteroatom.. Applied Catalysis B: Environmental, 163, 599-610, 2015 K. Morawa Eblagon, S.C. Edman Tsang. Structure-reactivity relationship in catalytic hydrogenation of heterocyclic compounds over ruthenium black-Part A: Effect of substitution of pyrrole ring and side chain in N-heterocycles. Applied Catalysis B: Environmental, 160–161, 22–34, 2014 K. Morawa Eblagon, P. Heydorn Concepción, H. Silva, A. Mendes. Ultraselective low temperature steam reforming of methanol over PdZn/ZnO catalysts—Influence of induced support defects on catalytic performance. Applied Catalysis B: Environmental, 154-155, 316–328, 2014 K. Morawa Eblagon, K.Tam, K.Yu, S.C.Tsang. Comparative Study of Catalytic Hydrogenation of 9-Ethylcarbazole for Hydrogen Storage Over Noble Metal Surfaces. Journal of Physical Chemistry C, 116, 7421-7429, 2012 K.Morawa Eblagon, K.Tam, S.C.Edman Tsang. Comparison of catalytic performance of supported ruthenium and rhodium for hydrogenation of 9-ethylcarbazole for hydrogen storage application. Energy and Environmental Science, 5, 8621-8630, 2012 K. Morawa Eblagon, D. Rentsch, O. Friedrichs, A. Remhof, A. Zuettel, A.J. Ramirez-Cuesta, S. C.Tsang. Hydrogenation of 9-ethylcarbazole as a prototype of a liquid hydrogen carrier. International Journal of Hydrogen Energy, 35, 11609-11621, 2010 K. Morawa Eblagon, K. Tam, K. M. Kerry Yu, S-L. Zhao, X-Q. Gong, H. He, L. Ye, L-C. Wang, A.J. Ramirez-Cuesta, S. C.Tsang. Study of catalytic sites on ruthenium for hydrogenation of N-ethylcarbazole: Implications of hydrogen storage via reversible catalytic hydrogenation. The Journal of Physical Chemistry C, 114, 9720-9730, 2010

SELECTED PROJECTS

RL2_P4 - Catalysis and Materials. Reference: NORTE-07-0124-FEDER-000015. Funded by: CCDR-N, Programa Operacional Regional do Norte (ON.2). Starting Date: 2013/01/01. Duration: 30 months. BeingEnergy - Integrated low temperature methanol steam reforming and high temperature polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell. Reference: 303476. Funded by: European Comission, 7.º Programa-Quadro de IDT. Starting Date: 2012/09/01. Duration: 42 months. Development of PtSe/carbon black catalyst for oxygen reduction in DMFC. Reference: PTDC/CTM/108454/2008. Funded by: FCT – Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, I&DT - Projectos de I&DT em Todos os Domínios Científicos. Starting Date: 2010/05/01. Duration: 42 months.
Katarzyna Eblagon
Investigador Doutorado
keblagon@fe.up.pt