prof. Ing. Libor Čapek, Ph.D.

Prof. Ing. Libor Čapek, Ph.D., completed his doctoral studies in the group of Dr. B. Wichterlová at J. Heyrovsky Institute of Physical Chemistry, successfully completing his studies at the University of Pardubice in 2004. For his dissertation he was awarded the “Award of Ministry of Education for Excellent Students and Graduates”. In 2005 he joined the Department of Physical Chemistry at the Faculty of Chemical Technology of the University of Pardubice, where he still works. In 2009 he was appointed Associate Professor in Physical Chemistry. In 2017 he was appointed Professor of Physical Chemistry. Since 2018 he has been the head of the Department of Physical Chemistry.

Scientific interest

• Heterogeneous catalysis and photocatalysis
• Acido-basic properties of mixed oxides
• Environmental catalytic processes

Scientific activities

Prof. Čapek is active in the field of heterogeneous catalysis and photocatalysis. He is currently involved in the transformation of double layered hydroxides into the respective mixed oxides and their subsequent rehydration. Said materials are attractive basic catalysts, for example, in the aldol condensation of furfural, which is one of the steps of processing biomass into biofuels. His research focuses on the targeted preparation of basic catalysts with the necessary texture, structural and acido-basic properties. The other area that prof. Čapek is currently dealing with is photocatalysis where he focuses on the study of optical and electron properties of metal and non-metal doped TiO₂ materials. These are currently used for the water splitting reaction.

Prominent international cooperation

• prof. L. Chmielarz, prof. A. Kotarba, prof. P. Kustrowski etc. – Jagiellonian University Krakow, Poland
• prof. A. Caballero – Universidad de Sevilla, Spain

Bibliometric indicators (Web of Science)

Number of papers 89, H-index 27, Total number of citations > 2100

Citations per paper in WoS Categories 2000-2019 (CZ average): CHEMISTRY PHYSICAL 26.90 (20.74),
CHEMISTRY APPLIED 14.00 (18.80), ENGINEERING CHEMICAL 39.33 (15.44)

Two most important projects carried out from the position of principal investigator or co-investigator

• Advanced analysis of the relationship between optical/electron/textural/structural properties of TiO₂ doped materials and its photocatalytic activity, 2017 – 2019; Czech Science Foundation GA17-20737S.
• Quantifying the basicity of reconstructed layered double hydroxides and correlating this with their performance
  in base-catalysed reactions, 2019 – 2021; Czech Science Foundation GA19-22978S.

Two most important publications

• Smoláková L., Dubnová L., Kocík J., Endres J., Daniš S., Priecel P., Čapek L.: In-situ characterization of the thermal treatment of Zn-Al hydrotalcites with respect to the formation of Zn/Al mixed oxide active in aldol condensation of furfural, Applied Clay Science 157 (2018) 8–18.
• Dubnová L., Zvolská M., Edelmannová M., Matějová L., Reli M., Drobná H., Kuśtrowski P., Kočí K., Čapek L.: Photocatalytic decomposition of methanol-water solution over N-La/TiO₂ photocatalysts, Applied Surface Science 469 (2019) 879-886.

Awards

• Award of Ministry of Education for Excellent Students and Graduates (2004)