Max Planck Institute for Coal Research

The Max Planck Institute for Coal Research is an institute located in Mülheim an der Ruhr, Germany specializing in chemical research on catalysis. It is one of the 80 institutes in the Max Planck Society . Founded in 1912 as the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Coal Research in Mülheim an der Ruhr to study the chemistry and uses of coal, it became an independent Max Planck Institute in 1949.ResearchThe Institute carries out basic research in organic and organometallic chemistry, in homogeneous and heterogeneous catalysis as well as in theoretical chemistry. The principal aim is to develop new methods for the selective and environmentally benign preparation of new compounds and materials.The MPI KoFo has been at the forefront of research in chemistry since its formation. One of these is the development of the Fischer–Tropsch process through the efforts of Franz Fischer and Hans Tropsch in 1925 when the institute was still organized as the Kaiser-Wilhelm-Institut für Kohlenforschung. Nobel Prize laureate Karl Ziegler also worked at the institute alongside Hans-Georg Gellert, one of his former students, to discover aufbau reaction (Aufbaureaktion) or growth reaction among aluminum alkyl compounds.