Rate My Professor Ave Sarapuu

Ave Sarapuu serves as Associate Professor in Colloidal and Environmental Chemistry at the Institute of Chemistry, University of Tartu. She earned her PhD in Colloidal and Environmental Chemistry from the University of Tartu in 2008, with her dissertation entitled "Electrochemical reduction of oxygen on quinone groups containing carbon materials." She studied chemistry at the University of Tartu and has held positions including Senior Research Fellow at the Institute of Chemistry from 2005 to 2011. Her career has been dedicated to advancing electrocatalytic materials at this institution.

Sarapuu's research specializes in the electrocatalysis of the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR), focusing on the development of non-precious metal catalysts such as transition metal- and nitrogen-doped nanocarbon materials for anion-exchange membrane fuel cells (AEMFCs) and proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs). She employs biomass-derived precursors and template-assisted synthesis to create mesoporous and hierarchically porous electrocatalysts that exhibit high activity and durability. With 80 publications garnering over 3,850 citations, notable works include "Recent Advances in Non-Precious Metal Single-Atom Electrocatalysts for Oxygen Reduction Reaction in Low-Temperature Polymer-Electrolyte Fuel Cells" (ChemCatChem, 2023), "Lignin-Derived Precious Metal-Free Electrocatalysts for Anion-Exchange Membrane Fuel Cell Application" (ACS Catalysis, 2024), "Transition-Metal and Nitrogen-Doped Carbon Nanotube/Graphene Hybrid Electrocatalysts for the Oxygen Reduction Reaction" (ACS Applied Energy Materials, 2023), and "Hierarchically Porous Fe-N-C Single-Atom Catalysts via Ionothermal Synthesis for Oxygen Reduction Reaction" (ChemSusChem, 2024). She utilizes techniques such as rotating disk electrode voltammetry, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy, and transmission electron microscopy. Sarapuu has supervised doctoral theses, including Jaana Lilloja's on transition metal and nitrogen-doped nanocarbon cathode catalysts (2022) and Kaarel Kisand's on resorcinol-derived carbon-based catalysts. She has acted as principal investigator on projects like ETF8380 and contributed to group achievements, with her team nominated for national research awards in 2025.