Matteo Maestri authors a Comment in Nature Catalysis: a new perspective for catalyst design.
Prof. Matteo Maestri, Director of the Department of Energy at Politecnico di Milano, has authored a Comment published on August 3, 2026, in Nature Catalysis, one of the most authoritative international scientific journals dedicated to catalysis research.
Published at the invitation of the journal, The Active Site and Its Environment offers a perspective on the future directions of the field, proposing a paradigm shift in the understanding and design of catalytic processes. The contribution highlights how catalyst performance does not depend exclusively on the active site, namely the material region where chemical reactions take place, but also on the reaction environment, which plays a decisive role in determining structure, activity, and selectivity.
“Research has focused primarily on the active site for many years. Today, it is increasingly clear that understanding its behavior requires considering the reaction environment in which it operates. Only by integrating these two aspects can we develop truly predictive models and design more efficient, reliable, and sustainable catalysts for industrial and energy applications,”
In the Comment, Maestri describes catalysis as a phenomenon that develops simultaneously across multiple scales, from the atomic level to the operation of an industrial reactor. For this reason, progress in the field requires an integrated approach combining multiscale modeling, operando experimental techniques — capable of observing catalysts under their actual working conditions — and advanced methodologies based on artificial intelligence.
The article also emphasizes that catalysts and reactors cannot be designed independently: the same material can exhibit very different performances depending on the operating conditions and the environment in which it is employed. Considering the active site and its environment as a single integrated system therefore represents a fundamental step toward accelerating the development of increasingly high-performing catalytic technologies.
Prof. Maestri’s article provides a forward-looking contribution on one of the central themes of contemporary research, outlining methodological directions that may guide the development of more efficient, sustainable, and reliable catalysts for industrial and energy applications.
The publication of an invited Comment in Nature Catalysis represents an important international scientific recognition. Unlike a research article, a Comment is a perspective contribution commissioned by the journal from scholars invited to provide an authoritative reflection on strategic topics shaping the evolution of the field.
