Alkanes, dehydrogenation alkane chemisorption

In summary a few "generalizations" have been found. First, size selective chemistry is strongly associated with chemisorption that requi res bond-breaking. Second, metal clusters react rapidly with ligands that molecularly chemisorb even when the eventual products involve dissociation of the ligand. Dehydrogenation of Cg-alkanes on small platinum clusters take exception to this. 

In Figure 5 the generally accepted reaction path (14) for hydroisomerization of n-alkanes has been represented along with different possibilities for the cracking step. The n-alkane molecules are adsorbed at a dehydrogenation/hydrogenation site where n-alkenes are formed. After desorption and diffusion to an acidic site chemisorption yields secondary carbenium ions that rearrange... 

In addition to hydrogen chemisorption and ethane hydrogenolysis, the reactions of cyclohexane provide a useful chemical probe for investigating ruthenium-copper aggregates. On pure ruthenium, two reactions of cyclohexane are readily observed dehydrogenation to benzene and hydrogenolysis to lower carbon number alkanes. The product of the latter reaction is predominantly methane, even at very low conversions. 

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