Anna is a Postdoctoral Research Associate on B07 beamline, working on chirally modified model catalysts.
Email: [email protected]Tel: +44 (0)12353 94100
Anna Juliana Kny
Tel: +44 (0)12353 94100
Research expertise
· Structure determination
· Chiral adsorbate structures
· Heterogeneous catalysis
Latest Publications
Anna received her B.Sc. (2017) and M.Sc. (2020) degrees in chemistry from the University of Bonn, Germany. In May 2025, she successfully completed her PhD in the Surface Science Research Group, led by Prof. Moritz Sokolowski at the Clausius-Institute of Physical and Theoretical Chemistry in Bonn, where she continued to work as a postdoctoral researcher. In September 2025, Anna joined the B07 Team as a postdoctoral research associate.
Anna J. Kny, Adam Sweetman, and Moritz Sokolowski (2025). An Atomistic Analysis of the Carpet Growth of KCl Across Step Edges on the Ag(111) Surface. The Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters, 16, 3, 696–702. DOI: 10.1021/acs.jpclett.4c02809.
Anna J. Kny, Max Reimer, Noah Al-Shamery, Ritu Tomar, Thomas Bredow, Selina Olthof, Dirk Hertel, Klaus Meerholz, and Moritz Sokolowski (2023). Chiral self-organized single 2D-layers of tetramers from a functional donor–acceptor molecule by the surface template effect. Nanoscale, 24, 15, 10319-10329. DOI: 10.1039/D3NR00767G.
Anna J. Kny, Moritz Sokolowski, and Peter Kury (2023). Increasing the scan speed in high resolution, low energy electron diffraction measurements by presetting the gate time. Review of Scientific Instruments, 94, 064707. DOI: 10.1063/5.0137991.
Peer-reviewed papers, co-author:
Ritu Tomar, Anna J. Kny, Moritz Sokolowski, and Thomas Bredow (2025). Modelling the Monolayer Formation of Merocyanine HB238 on the Ag(100) Surface. The Journal of Physical Chemistry C, 129, 15, 7427–7436. DOI: 10.1021/acs.jpcc.4c08683.
Anna's research focuses on chiral surface structures and their application for enantioselective catalysis. The goal is to explain the enantioselectivity of on-surface reactions at a molecular level by investigation of the intermolecular and interfacial interactions. Structural investigations are performed under UHV and realistic reaction conditions (near ambient pressure) and include x-ray photoemission spectroscopy (XPS), near-edge x-ray absorption fine structure spectroscopy (NEXAFS), normal incidence x-ray standing wave measurements (NIXSW), low energy electron diffraction (LEED) and scanning tunnelling microscopy (STM) measurements.
