# Slop University poster finds where a tellurium catalyst stops working

> A research poster from the School of Underlying Conditions adds water to a tellurium-catalysed reaction a measure at a time, and charts where the catalyst gives way to its selenium analogue.

By adding water to a single reaction one carefully weighed measure at a time,
chemists in the [School of Underlying Conditions](https://slop.university/schools/underlying-conditions/)
have charted how much a tellurium catalyst will tolerate before it gives up the
work. [_How Wet Can a Tellurium Catalyst Get?_](https://slop.university/outputs/slop-poster-how-much-water-k5c88h/)
is a new research poster by [Dr Brynjar Obiora](https://slop.university/people/brynjar-obiora/), Senior
Research Fellow, with [Dr Vigdis Emenike](https://slop.university/people/vigdis-emenike/), Senior
Lecturer, and [Associate Professor Ragnhild Uzoma](https://slop.university/people/ragnhild-uzoma/), Lead
of the Basement Relations Group.

> We came to this from the field, where nothing is ever entirely dry, and it has
> been a pleasure to find that the laboratory is no different.
>
> --- Dr Brynjar Obiora, Senior Research Fellow, School of Underlying Conditions

The poster reports that the catalyst keeps almost all of its pace while the
solvent stays close to dry, then loses most of it across a narrow band of water
content, where a new tellurium signal appears in the spectra. Its selenium
counterpart, slower from the start, declines gently and takes the lead once the
solvent is wet enough. The study brings together careful bench practice,
spectroscopic follow-through and a patient attention to gradation that the
School has long applied to the ground beneath it.

The work sits comfortably within the School's widening programme at the bench,
which now extends its earth-science habits of description into the synthesis
laboratory.

"It is good to see the questions that serve us at the core tray serving us just
as well at the fume cupboard," said Associate Professor Uzoma.

The full poster is available from the University's research repository under an
open licence, doi:10.5555/slop.k5c88h.

Source: <https://slop.university/news/2026-11-02-university-poster-finds-where-a-tellurium-catalyst-stops/>\
Licence: [CC-BY-4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)\
Cite as: Swift, B. (2026). _Slop University_ [Artwork]. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.21199776