Hans-Joachim Freund

Freund's research group has synthesized a broad range of relevant materials, with geometric and electronic structures, including surface defects, probed at the atomic level using tunneling and atomic force microscopy techniques. His work has established the state-of-the-art in new techniques and instrumentation to establish mechanistic pathways and structural and electronic requirements in heterogeneous catalysis. Freund has made contributions both, conceptually and by experimental developments and instrumental activities to bridge surface science and catalysis at the atomic scale by increasing complexity. In the course of creating model systems, he has discovered and atomically resolved a silica glass and synthesized a 2D-zeolite.