Tomás Vergara graduated as chemical engineer in 2022 from Universidad de Concepción, Chile, and obtained his Master of Science in chemical engineering from the same university in 2023. Both his bachelor and master thesis were advocated to the study of Cu catalysts for CO₂ hydrogenation to methanol. Since October 2023 he works as a doctoral researcher at the Institute of Catalysis Research and Technology (IKFT), where he is involved in the e-Xplore project, particularly in the study of the direct DME synthesis from syngas under industrial relevant conditions.

Publications

Journals

• Vergara, T., Gómez, D., de Oliveira Campos, B. L., Delgado, K. H., Jiménez, R., & Karelovic, A. Disclosing the reaction mechanism of the CO2 hydrogenation to methanol over CuCeOx/TiO2: a combined kinetic, spectroscopic and isotopic study. ACS Catalysis 2023, In press, DOI: 10.1021/acscatal.3c04243.
• Vergara, T., Gómez, D., de Oliveira Campos, B. L., Delgado, K. H., Concepción, P., Jiménez, R., & Karelovic, A. Combined role of Ce promotion and TiO2 support improves CO2 hydrogenation to methanol on Cu catalysts: Interplay between structure and kinetics. Journal of Catalysis 2023, 426, 200-213, DOI: 10.1016/j.jcat.2023.07.017.

Presentations

• T. Vergara, R. Pallacán, MF. Guevara, R. Jiménez, A. Karelovic, Structure sensitivity of methanol synthesis from CO2 on Cu/ZrO2 catalysts, 15th European Congress on Catalysis (15thEuropaCat), September 2023.
• T. Vergara, D. Gómez, B. Lacerda de Oliveira Campos, K. Herrera Delgado, P.  Concepción, R. Jiménez, A. Karelovic, Kinetic and mechanistic study of CO2 conversion into methanol over Cu/TiO2 and Cu/SiO2 catalysts promoted by CeO2, 28th North American Catalysis Meeting (28thNAM) , June 2023.
• T. Vergara, D. Gómez, B. Lacerda de Oliveira Campos, K. Herrera Delgado, R. Jiménez, A. Karelovic, Estudio cinético de la síntesis de metanol sobre catalizadores de cobre promovidos por óxido de cerio, XXVIII Congresso Ibero-Americano de Catálise, Natal (online), September 2022.

Poster contributions

• T. Vergara, D. Gómez, B. Lacerda de Oliveira Campos, K. Herrera Delgado, P.  Concepción, R. Jiménez, A. Karelovic, Kinetic and mechanistic study of CO2 conversion into methanol over Cu/TiO2 and Cu/SiO2 catalysts promoted by CeO2, 15th European Congress on Catalysis (15thEuropaCat) , September 2023.
• T. Vergara, D. Gómez, S. Collins, R. Jiménez, A. Karelovic, Low contents of Zn on Cu/SiO2 modify the surface and the mechanism of CO2 hydrogenation to methanol, 28th North American Catalysis Meeting (28thNAM) , June 2023.