Scientific Bases for the Preparation of Heterogeneous Catalysts - Highlights of the 11th International Symposium Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, July 6-10, 2014

This issue of Catalysis Today presents a selection of contributions to the 11th International Symposium on the Scientific Bases for the Preparation of Heterogeneous Catalysts (PREPA11), held on the campus of the “Universite catholique de Louvain” (UCL) in Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, on July 6–10, 2014. This series of symposia was initiated in 1975 on a regular 4-year interval basis. Previous proceedings of these symposia have been published in Studies in Surface Science and Catalysis. As for previous editions, this 11th symposium was made possible thanks to the organizational skills of the members of the research groups active in heterogeneous catalysis of the “Institute of Condensed Matter and Nanosciences” of the UCL and the “Centre for Surface Chemistry and Catalysis” of the University of Leuven, KU Leuven, Belgium. The topics covered by the symposium were: control of porosity and hierarchical materials, electrocatalytic and photocatalytic processes, advanced preparation of catalysts and supports, alternative synthetic methods, key concepts and tools in catalysts preparation, metallic nanoparticles. 254 abstracts were submitted, constituting a great success and confirming the interest for the preparation of catalysts in industry, research institutes and academia. The abstract selection criteria handled by the local Organizing Committee and the International Scientific Committee (which was constituted of delegates with an industrial appointment) were strongly focused on catalysts preparation aspects, the discussion of physico-chemical characteristics and catalytic properties being limited to the identification of the influence and control of the preparation parameters.