Service Departments

We are responsible for providing a reliable, up-to-date communications and computing infrastructure to the MPI research community, particularly including the design and support of various central services. On the following pages you find a brief compilation of the services that we provide. [more]

Our Library serves the five chemical departments by buying, collecting and archiving books and journals from the field of chemical catalysis. It focuses on organometallic, theoretical, polymer and coal chemistry as well as on materials science. 17.000+ books and monographs and 630 dissertations reflect various aspects of catalysis. Our holdings contain a large collection of recent and many older print-journals. 170+ subscribed journals are electronically catalogued and linked with their digital equivalents. [more]

The NMR department at the MPI für Kohlenforschung supplies the expertise for the implementation of standard and advanced NMR experiments and their analytic interpretation as well as the development of novel methodologies for the different research groups. We are dedicated as well to teaching and research. [more]

The departmental services include the characterization of materials and the structure elucidation of chemical substances by crystallographic and microscopic methods. This entails single crystal structure determination, transmission and scanning electron microscopy together with a wide range of methods for sample preparation. Our research areas are electron density determination, polymorphism and crystal-engineering studies. [more]

Mass spectrometry is one of the fastest growing analytical methods. The mass spectrometry laboratory is focusing on the development of analytical methods using modern instrumentation. As a service group we offer: standard MS measurements using EI, CI, ESI, APLI, APPI and APCI, accurate mass measurements, interpretation of data, and coupling of separation techniques to MS. [more]

As the central laboratory for separation sciences of the Max-Planck-Institut für Kohlenforschung the Department of Chromatography & Electrophoresis offers an extensive range of analytical methods. We apply instrumental chromatographic and electrophoretic separations as well as hyphenated techniques. [more]

The technical laboratories house  the high-pressure and large-scale synthesis facilities of the institute. Autoclaves are typically manufactured in our own workshops and operated in specially encased pressure chambers. Large-scale synthesis facilities are available for reactions in glass vessels up to 200 L. Furthermore, a standard set of purified and/or dried and deoxygenated solvents (about 1.500 L per month) are continuously provided for all research groups. Another focus of our department entails the disposal of chemical waste with an annual quantity of about 35 tons. [more]

The research activities of the group focus on crystallographic investigations of inorganic functional materials. These are used either as catalysts in chemical reactions or for energy storage and conversion. Structure-property relationships are studied on different length scales: from the averaged crystal structure to the local structure of amorphous or disordered compounds. The group has a long experience in the field of in situ diffraction. For in situ or operando investigations of structure-property relationships a variety of different sample environments are available, which are listed under "Instrumental Equipment". [more]

The software-program ORCA is a flexible, efficient and easy-to-use general purpose tool for quantum chemistry with specific emphasis on spectroscopic properties of open-shell molecules. The binaries of ORCA are available free of charge for academic users for a variety of platforms. ORCA was written by Prof. F. Neese, with contributions from .... [more]