Solid acid catalysts theory

Enhancing the Activity of Solid Acid Catalysts with Supercritical Reaction Media Experiments and Theory ... 

B Subramaniam, DM Ginosar. Enhancing tbe activity of solid acid catalysts with supercritical reaction media experiments and theory. In P Rudolf von Rohr, C Trepp, eds. Process Technology Proceedings. Vol. 12. High Pressure Chemical Engineering. Amsterdam Elsevier, 1996, pp 3-9. 

In a 250 ml Erlenmeyer flask covered with aluminum foil, 14.3 g (0.0381 mole) of 17a-acetoxy-3j5-hydroxypregn-5-en-20-one is mixed with 50 ml of tetra-hydrofuran, 7 ml ca. 0.076 mole) of dihydropyran, and 0.15 g of p-toluene-sulfonic acid monohydrate. The mixture is warmed to 40 + 5° where upon the steroid dissolves rapidly. The mixture is kept for 45 min and 1 ml of tetra-methylguanidine is added to neutralize the catalyst. Water (100 ml) is added and the organic solvent is removed using a rotary vacuum evaporator. The solid is taken up in ether, the solution is washed with water and saturated salt solution, dried over sodium sulfate, and then treated with Darco and filtered. Removal of the solvent followed by drying at 0.2 mm for 1 hr affords 18.4 g (theory is 17.5 g) of solid having an odor of dihydropyran. The infrared spectrum contains no hydroxyl bands and the crude material is not further purified. This compound has not been described in the literature. 

Tetrahedral intermediates, derived from carboxylic acids, spectroscopic detection and the investigation of their properties, 21, 37 Topochemical phenomena in solid-state chemistry, 15, 63 Transition state structure, crystallographic approaches to, 29, 87 Transition state structure, in solution, effective charge and, 27, 1 Transition state structure, secondary deuterium isotope effects and, 31, 143 Transition states, structure in solution, cross-interaction constants and, 27, 57 Transition states, the stabilization of by cyclodextrins and other catalysts, 29, 1 Transition states, theory revisited, 28, 139... 

Sabatier and Balandin had predicted a relationship between catal)dic activity and heat of adsorption. If a solid adsorbs the reactants only weakly, it will be a poor catalyst, but if it holds reactants, intermediates or products too strongly, it wiU again perform poorly. The ideal catalyst for a given reaction was predicted to be a compromise between too weak and too strong chemisorption. Balandin transformed this concept to a semiquantitative theory by predicting that a plot of the reaction rate of a catal)Tic reaction as a function of the heat of adsorption of the reactant should have a sharp maximum. He called these plots volcano-shaped curvesl This prediction was confirmed by Fahrenfort et al." An example of their volcano-shaped curve is reproduced in Fig. 9.1. They chose the catalytic decomposition of formic acid... 

In the first chapter, Bates and van Santen summarize the theoretical foundations of catalysis in acidic zeolites. Being the most important crystalline materials used as catalysts, zeolites have been the obvious starting point for applications of theory to catalysis by solids and surfaces. Impressive progress has been made in the application of theory to account for transport, sorption, and reaction in zeolites, and the comparisons with experimental results indicate some marked successes as well as opportunities for improving both the theoretical and experimental foundations. 

A systematic study to identify solid oxide catalysts for the oxidation of methane to methanol resulted in the development of a Ga203—M0O3 mixed metal oxide catalyst showing an increased methanol yield compared with the homogeneous gas-phase reaction.1080,1081 Fe-ZSM-5 after proper activation (pretreatment under vacuum at 800-900°C and activation with N20 at 250°C) shows high activity in the formation of methanol at 20°C.1082 Density functional theory studies were conducted for the reaction pathway of the methane to methanol conversion by first-row transition-metal monoxide cations (MO+).1083 These are key to the mechanistic aspects in methane hydroxylation, and CuO+ was found to be a likely excellent mediator for the reaction. A mixture of vanadate ions and pyrazine-2-carboxylic acid efficiently catalyzes the oxidation of methane with 02 and H202 to give methyl hydroperoxide and, as consecutive products, methanol and formaldehyde.1084 1085... 

Yashitome et al.148 studied the mass transfer from single samples of benzoic acid suspended in an air-water bubble-column. Spherical, cylindrical, and diskshaped samples were used. The diameters of the particles (ranging from 25 through 75 mm) were considerably larger than the catalyst sizes normally used in gas-liquid-solid catalytic slurry operation. The data were correlated using the slip velocity theory. 

The definition of acidity in terms of the Lewis theory has a broad meaning that encompasses the Bronsted definition as a particular case. In practice, especially in the field of heterogeneous catalysis, it is important to differentiate between Bronsted or Lewis acid sites on solid catalysts, since they may show completely different catalytic behavior. 

---