Alexey Cherevan received his Master's Degree in Chemistry (2010) from Lomonosov Moscow State University, Russia. One year later, he was awarded a Ph.D. fellowship from the International NRW Graduate School of Chemistry and moved to the University of Münster, Germany to start his doctoral studies in the field of nanocarbon-inorganic hybrid materials for photocatalysis. Supported by the Ewald-Wicke Scholarship (2012), he had the opportunity to visit the group of Prof. K. Domen (University of Tokyo, Japan), which helped him to obtain my Ph.D. Degree in Physical Chemistry (2014) with Summa Cum Laude distinction. He then joined TU Wien as Area Leader (2015) of the Molecular Materials Chemistry group and later as a PI (2019) of a stand-alone FWF project. He was promoted to a tenure-track Assistant Professor (2023) and completed his Habilitation Degree (Privatdozent) in Materials Chemsity (2024). He am currently a part of the Cluster of Excellence MECS, opens an external URL in a new window (2023-2027) with his research focusing on the area of photocatalysis.

To this end, he has published more than 60 papers, opens an external URL in a new window and 2 book chapters. He have given more than 30 oral, invited, and highlight talks at seminars and international conferences (full list here) and also delivered a TED Talk, opens an external URL in a new window on artificial photosynthesis (2020).

→ Google Scholar, opens an external URL in a new window | ORCID, opens an external URL in a new window | Publons , opens an external URL in a new window| Twitter , opens an external URL in a new window| LinkedIn, opens an external URL in a new window

→ CV (February 2026), opens an external URL in a new window | List of publications (February 2026), opens an external URL in a new window

The main research activities of the Cherevan Lab include: 

1. Photoreforming of biomass and polymer waste
2. Bridging homogeneous and heterogeneous photosystems
3. All-inorganic metalate clusters
4. Towards single-metal-site photocatalysts
5. Molecular photosensitizers and catalysts
6. Design of earth-abundant co-catalysts
7. PhotoLab: our Photocatalysis Facility

A short overview of these research topics can be found under Solar Fuels Research Area.

Besides, the Cherevan Lab contributes actively to the research directions of the Molecular Materials Chemistry division, including:

• Metal-organic frameworks and metal-organic polyhedra
• 2D nanomaterials
• CO₂ utilization 

Overall, I obtained more than 2 Million Euro funding ver the past 5 years as principal investigator (PI) and project leader, including

Within the framework of a national Austrian Science Fund (FWF) Stand-Alone Project P32801 “Surface-Immobilized Molecular Chalcogen-based Metalate Clusters for Photocatalysis” (2020-2024), my team has started the exploration of all-inorganic clusters in light-driven catalytic applications, aiming to generate green hydrogen and other solar fuels.

Two Ph.D. students (Samar Batool and Stephen N. Myakala) were fully funded for the period of the project and completed their PhD Thesis in 2024.

Currently, the team is supported by the CoE MECS with 2 PhD students and 1 post-doctoral researcher working on the topics of single-site photocatalysis and metal-organic frameworks.

To this end, I have contributed to more than 60 papers, opens an external URL in a new window (average impact factor above 10, most in high-impact journals incl. Nature Comm., Adv.Mat., EES, ACS Catalysis, Adv.Funct.Mat., Adv.En.Mat., Appl.Cat.B., JMCA, etc. incl. 7 high-profile reviews) and 2 book chapters.The list of my publications can be found on the google scholar, opens an external URL in a new window or ORCID, opens an external URL in a new window profiles.

A few selected papers that are central to my research are listed below:

1. S. Myakala and A. Cherevan* “Atomically Precise Cluster Co-Catalysts: Missing Link Towards Heterogenized Photocatalytic Systems” ACS Nano 2026, 20, 1, 99-118 | DOI: 10.1021/acsnano.5c15286

2. M. Weisweiller, A. Ertl, C. Baeckmann, A. Sihag, C. Pichler, F. Kleiz, D. Eder, A. Cherevan* “Photocatalytic upcycling of PET into methane, hydrogen and high-value liquid products” Green Chemistry 2026, 28, 309-317 | DOI: 10.1002/adma.202305730

3. S. Batool, M. Langer, S. Myakala, M. Heiland, D. Eder, C. Streb and A. Cherevan* “Thiomolybdate clusters: from homogeneous catalysis to heterogenization and active sites” Advanced Materials 2024, 36, 2305730 | DOI: 10.1039/D5GC03562G

4. S. Batool, S. P. Nandan, S. N. Myakala, A. Rajagopal, J. S. Schubert, P. Ayala, S. Naghdi, H. Saito, J. Bernardi, C. Streb, A. Cherevan* and D. Eder “Surface-anchoring and active sites of [Mo₃S₁₃]^2- clusters as co-catalysts for photocatalytic hydrogen evolution” ACS Catalysis 2022, 12, 11, 6641-6650 | DOI: 10.1021/acscatal.2c00972 | front cover

5. S. Naghdi, A. Cherevan, A. Giesriegl, R.Guillet-Nicolas, S. Biswas, T. Gupta, J. Wang, T. Haunold, B. Bayer, G. Rupprechter, M. Toroker, F. Kleitz and D. Eder “Selective ligand removal to improve accessibility of active sites in hierarchical MOFs for heterogeneous photocatalysis” Nature Communications 2022, 13, 282 | DOI: 10.1038/s41467-021-27775-7

6. J. Schubert, L. Kalantari, A. Lechner, A. Giesriegl, S. Nandan, P. Ayala, S. Kashiwaya, M. Sauer, A. Foelske, J. Rosen, P. Blaha, A. Cherevan* and D. Eder “Elucidating the formation and active state of Cu co-catalysts for photocatalytic hydrogen evolution” JMCA 2021, 9 (38), 21958-21971 | DOI: 10.1039/D1TA05561E

7. A. Cherevan*, S. Nandan, I. Roger, R. Liu, C. Streb, D. Eder „Polyoxometalates on Functional Substrates: Concepts, Synergies, and Future Perspectives“ Advanced Science  2020, 7, 1903511 | DOI: 10.1002/advs.201903511

8. J. Schubert, J. Popovic, G. Haselmann, S. Nandan, J. Wang, A. Giesriegl, A. Cherevan* and D. Eder “Immobilization of Co, Mn, Ni, and Fe oxide co-catalysts on TiO₂ for photocatalytic water-splitting reactions”  JMCA 2019, 7, 18568-18579 1903511 | DOI: 10.1039/C9TA05637H 

9. A. Cherevan* and D. Eder “Dual Excitation Transient Photocurrent Measurement for Charge Transfer Studies in Nanocarbon Hybrids and Composites” Advanced Materials Interfaces  2016, 3, 1600244 | DOI: 10.1002/admi.201600244

10. A. Cherevan, P. Gebhardt, C. J. Shearer, M. Matsukawa, K. Domen and D. Eder “Interface Engineering in Nanocarbon–Ta₂O₅ Hybrid Photocatalysts” Energy & Environmental Science  2014, 7, 791-796 | DOI: 10.1039/C3EE42558D

I have acquired various teaching experiences throughout the years at the TU Wien. My current position implies a rather heavy teaching involvement and a variety of courses which can be sub-divided into lectures (I take part as a sole- or co-lecturer) and labs (I take part as a supervisor, organizer, or student assistant):

Supervision of interns, bachelor, and master students, as well as supervision of Ph.D. students, have been included in my daily routine in the past 15 years. Four of my first Ph.D. students already finished their degree with me and I currently directly mentor 2 Ph.D. students working on my projects. The full list of supervision activities at TU Wien is as follows:

Ph.D. students

• Jatin Chauhan (09.2024 – ongoing) – Project-funded (FWF).
• Madeline Weisweiller (11.2023 – ongoing) – Project-funded (FFG).
• Alaaddin Cem Ok (07.2023 – 06.2024) – visiting Ph.D. from Marmara University, Turkey (group of Prof. C. Sarıoğlu).
• Dr. Stephen N. Myakala (06.2020 – 2024) – Project-funded (FWF).
  Holder of the Christiane Hörbiger Award (2023), Chemical Monthly Fellowship (2023-2024) and awardee of the Best Poster Award at EUROMOF2023
  Ph.D. Thesis “Design and study of organic-inorganic hybrids as photocatalysts for energy and environmental applications”. Full text here.
• Dr. Samar Batool* (2020 – 2024) – Project-funded (FWF). 
  Ph.D. Thesis “Metal chalcogen based molecular clusters for light-driven hydrogen evolution reaction”. Full text here.
• Dr. Hanane Boumeriame (02.2020 – 08.2020) – visiting Ph.D. from the University of Porto, Portugal (group of Prof. J. Faria) via Ernst Mach Grant.
• Dr. Jasmin S. Schubert* (2018 – 2023) – University-funded.
  Holder of the Otto Vogl Prize (2019) for the Best Master Thesis in Chemistry from the Austrian Academy of Sciences. 
  Ph.D. Thesis “Earth-abundant co-catalysts for photocatalytic hydrogen generation”. Full text here.
• Dr. Kamonchanook Roongraung (02.2018 – 08.2018) – visiting Ph.D. from the King Mongkut's University of Technology, Thailand (group of Prof. S. Chuangchote)
• Dr. Sreejith P. Nandan* (2017 – 2023) – University and Project-Funded (DFG).  
  Holder of the Christiane Hörbiger Award (2020) and awardee of the Best Poster Award at NANOMAT2019.  
  Ph.D. Thesis “All-inorganic molecular clusters for photocatalytic water splitting: from homogeneous to heterogenized photosystems”

Master students

• Thomas Frater (12.2025 - ongoing)
• John Oyeleye (03.2025 - ongoing)
• Ladisich Magdalena (01.2025 - ongoing)
• Madeline Weisweiller (09.2022 - 09.2023)
  Thesis title “Photocatalytic generation of solar fuels and simultaneous oxidation of microplastics”. Full text here. 
  A part of the results of the project was also published in Green Chemistry.
• Adrian Ertl* (09.2022 - 08.2023)
  Thesis title “Design of Metal-Organic Frameworks containing Single-Metal-Site Cocatalysts for Photocatalytic Hydrogen Production”. Full text here.
• Markus Erlacher (09.2022 - 08.2023)
  Thesis title “Hydrogen Reduction with Polymer Nanoparticles (Pdots)". Co-supervised with Prof. Haining Tian (Uppsala University). Full text here.
• Andreas Lechner* (08.2021 – ongoing)
• Vivien Madi* (02.2020 - 09.2021) – is currently at the Austrian Institute of Technology (AIT)
  Thesis title “Synthesis and control of nanostructured mixed metal oxide photocatalysts”. Full text here.
• Pablo Ayala* (08.2019 – 05.2020)
  Thesis title “Towards single-site photocatalysis: design of non-noble-metal-based systems”. Full text here.
  A part of the results of the project was also published in Catalysts.
• Jasmin S. Schubert* (09.2017 – 06.2018)
  Thesis title “Synthesis and characterization of metal oxide clusters attached to TiO₂ nanoparticles for photocatalytic water splitting reactions”.
  A part of the results of the project has been also published in the Journal of Materials Chemistry A
  Jasmin received the Otto Vogl Prize for the Best Master Thesis in Chemistry from the Austrian Academy of Sciences.

Bachelor students

• Valentin Schwinghammer (11.2025 – ongoing)
• Alexander Kurta (03.2025 – ongoing)
• Sophie Carolina Doboczky (07.2024 – 02.2025)
  Thesis title “Pretreatment Strategies for Efficient Lignin Conversion into Hydrogen via Photocatalysis"
• Aleksei Ushakov (07.2023 – 09.2024)
  Thesis title “Molybdenum-sulfur clusters for the photocatalytic hydrogen evolution reaction"
• Melanie Horvath (07.2023 – 04.2024)
  Thesis title “Light-assisted generation of H2 and CH4 from microplastic wastes: the role of cocatalysts”
• Magdalena Ladisich (07.2022 – 06.2023)
  Thesis title “Visible-light assisted water purification using a Ti-based metal-organic framework”
  This project contributed to the publication in Journal of Materials Chemistry A.
• Björn Schneider (07.2021 – 09.2021)
  Thesis title “Synthesis and Characterization of Mixed-Metal MOFs (UiO-66) for the Photocatalytic Hydrogen-Evolution-Reaction”
• Alois Rottensteiner (07.2020 – 09.2020)
  Thesis title “Synthesis of Titanium-based Metal-Organic Frameworks and Investigation of their Use as Dark Photocatalytic Systems for Hydrogen Evolution Reaction”
• Matthias Preidl (07.2019 – 08.2019)
  Thesis title “Investigating cobalt-based polyoxometalates in photocatalytic systems for the water oxidation reaction”
  This project contributed to the publication in ChemSusChem.
• Andreas Lechner (05.2018 – 09.2019)
  Thesis title “Study on influential factors in the synthesis of copper co-catalyst assisted TiO₂ based photocatalysts for H₂ generation by sacrificial water splitting”
  This project led us to a publication in the Journal of Materials Chemistry A.

* My early PhD-, Master- and Bachelor students were all supervised by Prof. Eder and co-supervised by me till 06.2024 when I obtained my Habilitation Degree.

Internship students

• Florian Märzweiler (2025) “Size-control in the synthesis of faceted Fe2O3 and In2O3 Nanoparticles”
• Eren Bash (2025) “Photoreforming of Lignin using P25/ Na2Mo3S13 and C3N4/H2Cl6Pt Catalysts”
• Maximilian Peter-Paul Kovar (2024) “Photocatalytic water splitting of poly-oxometallates on titania and other systems”
• Chiara Egger (2024) “Hydrogen evolution reaction with TiO2, ZnIn2S4 and C3N4 modified with high and medium entropy sulfides”
• Lisa Lenz (2023) “Advancing Nanomaterial Research: Synthesis, Challenges, and HER of novel MOFs”
• Samuel Lukas Hartmann (2022) “Development of MXenes as co-catalysts for hydrogen evolution reaction”
• Magdalena Ladisch (2022) “COK-47 and platinum as a catalyst for photocatalytic water splitting – experiments on cocatalyst concentration and sacrificial agents”
• Lisa Grötzl (2022) “MOF-assisted photocatalytic H₂ generation: Synergy of COK-47 and thiomolybdate”
• Simon Eder (2021) “Metal-organic frameworks impregnated with thiomolybdate [Mo₃S₁₃]^2- clusters for photocatalytic hydrogen-evolution reaction”
• Filip Šmatlo (2021-2022, Erasmus +)
• Adrian Ertl (2021) “Zr- and Ti-based MOFs for hydrogen evolution: ligand composition and impregnation of thiomolybdate clusters”
• Madeline Weisweiller (2021) “Synthesis of titania-based photocatalysts by applying single site isolation strategy”
• Elias Lagger, Nick Parak and Valentina Salbrechter (summer internship 2021)
• Veronika Zeller (2021) “Characterization of Na₂Mo₃S­ clusters using (LA-)ICP-MS” (in cooperation with Andreas Limbeck)
• Jim Cloos (2021) “Catalytic hydrogen evolution activity of different photocatalysts”
• Ana Zilic (2021) “Synthesis of Au₂₅/Pd₁Au₂₄ clusters and their photocatalytic activity” (in cooperation with Noelia Barrabes)
• Michael Ketter (2021)
• Alireza Emami (2020) “Synthetic strategies towards single-site photocatalysis:”
• Quynh Nguyen (2020) “Attachment of polyoxometalates on TiO₂ for optimization of photocatalytic properties in oxygen evolution reaction”
• Glatzl Stefan (2020) “A guideline to construct a Mott-Schottky plot, flat band potential measurements and a calculated density of states of metal-organic frameworks”
• Manuel Holzmann (2019) “Fabrication of MOF-based photoelectrodes”
• Kristina Hofer (2019) “CNT-TiO₂ nanocarbon-inorganic hybrids”
• Christoph Riedl (2018) “Towards reaction kinetics of PTMs with TiO₂ nanoparticles”
• Max Kolbinger (2018) “Quantification of hydrogen evolution reaction”
• Janko Popovic (2018) “Decoration of TiO₂ with non-noble-metal-based co-catalysts”
• Antony Litovoilis (2018) “Photocatalytic deactivation in mixed-phase TiO₂”
• Ayala Pablo (2018) “Conversion of Cu-containing MIL-125 into active inorganic photocatalysts”
• Amy Zhongyu Ho (2018) “Towards in situ dye-sensitized photocatalysis”