Carbon monoxide, oxidative reactions

The purpose of this article is to review the results of transient low pressure studies of carbon monoxide oxidation over transition metal substrates. Particular emphasis is given to the use of in-situ electron spectroscopy, flash desorption, modulated beam and titration techniques. The strengths and weaknesses of these will be assessed with regard to kinetic insight and quantification. An attempt will be made to identify questions that are ripe for investigation. Although not limited to it, the presentation emphasizes our own work. A very recent review of the carbon monoxide oxidation reaction C l) will be useful to readers who are interested in a more comprehensive view. 

Just as in gas phase kinetics, reactive molecular beam-surface scattering is providing important molecular level insight into reaction dynamics. There is no surface reaction for which such studies have proven more illuminating than the carbon monoxide oxidation reaction. For example Len, Wharton and co-workers (23) found that the product CO exits a 700K Pt surface with speeds characteristic of temperatures near 3000K. This indicates that the CO formed by the reactive encounter of adsorbed species is hurled off the surface along a quite repulsive potential. 

A similar oxidation-reduction mechanism in the carbon monoxide oxidation reaction on oxide catalysts has been proposed by Benton (71), Bray (72), Frazer (73), and Schwab (74). In this reaction also, Mooi and Selwood (57) found that a decrease in the percentage of iron oxide, manganese oxide or copper oxide on the alumina support first increased the rate, and then at lower percentages decreased the rate, of carbon monoxide oxidation, indicating that valence stabilization is again operative in these cases. 

Reaction Rate Oscillations During the Carbon Monoxide Oxidation Reaction Over Pt/y-Al203 Catalysts An IR-Transmission Spectroscopy Study... 

Figure 3. Global rate constant vs. 1/ t for carbon monoxide oxidation reaction (Eq. 19).

Examples of catalysts in combustion reaction include the effect of H2O on the carbon monoxide oxidation reaction CO H- 2 C02- Nitric oxide also catalyzes CO oxidation through the mechanism 2 NO 4-O2 2NO2 (overall) and NO2 -f CO NO H- CO2. In both of these examples, an intermediate compound (for example, NO2) is formed and then destroyed. The addition of a small amount of NO2 to an H2 — O2 mixture leads to a branched-chain explosion by introducing the relatively rapid initiation step NO2 H- X NO H- O H- X, with the O atoms so produced generating the usual H2 — O2 chain. The NO2 also participates in the efficient termination step NO2 H- O NO H- O2, which is sufficiently important at large concentrations of NO2 to cause a slow reaction to be... 

Kucemak AR, Offer GJ (2008) The role of adsorbed hydroxyl species in the electrocatalytic carbon monoxide oxidation reaction on platinum. Phys Chem Chem Phys 10 3699-3711... 

Let us now consider the reduction of a metal oxide by carbon which is itself oxidised to carbon monoxide. The reaction will become energetically feasible when the free energy change for the combined process is negative (see also Figure i.i). Free energies. 

Nickel Carbonyl The extremely toxic gas nickel carbonyl can be detected at 0.01 ppb by measuring its chemiluminescent reaction with ozone in the presence of carbon monoxide. The reaction produces excited nickel(II) oxide by a chain process which generates many photons from each pollutant molecule to permit high sensitivity (315). 

Oxidation. Carbon monoxide can be oxidized without a catalyst or at a controlled rate with a catalyst (eq. 4) (26). Carbon monoxide oxidation proceeds explosively if the gases are mixed stoichiometticaHy and then ignited. Surface burning will continue at temperatures above 1173 K, but the reaction is slow below 923 K without a catalyst. HopcaUte, a mixture of manganese and copper oxides, catalyzes carbon monoxide oxidation at room temperature it was used in gas masks during World War I to destroy low levels of carbon monoxide. Catalysts prepared from platinum and palladium are particularly effective for carbon monoxide oxidation at 323 K and at space velocities of 50 to 10, 000 h . Such catalysts are used in catalytic converters on automobiles (27) (see Exhaust CONTHOL, automotive). 

G. Fisher and co-workers, "Mechanism of the Nitric Oxide—Carbon Monoxide—Oxygen Reaction Over a Single Crystal Rhodium Catalyst," in M. 

Carbon Monoxide Oxidation and Related Reactions on a Highly Divided Nickel Oxide... 

Oscillatory reactions carbon monoxide oxidation, 388 electrochemical promotion of, 389 Overpotential activation, 124 anodic, 122 cathodic, 122 cell, 123... 

Figure 8. Rate of carbon monoxide oxidation on calcined Pt cube monolayer as a function of temperature [27]. The square root of the SFG intensity as a function of time was fit with a first-order decay function to determine the rate of CO oxidation. Inset is an Arrhenius plot for the determination of the apparent activation energy by both SFG and gas chromatography. Reaction conditions were preadsorbed and 76 Torr O2 (flowing). (Reprinted from Ref. [27], 2006, with permission from American Chemical Society.)...

Fig. 33. Reaction yield as a function of time for carbon monoxide oxidation at room temperature on pure and doped nickel oxides. NiO (200), A NiO(Li) (250), O NiO (250) X NiO(Ga) (250). Reprinted from (8) with permission. Copyright 1969 by Academic Press, Inc., New York.

Carbon monoxide oxidation is a relatively simple reaction, and generally its structurally insensitive nature makes it an ideal model of heterogeneous catalytic reactions. Each of the important mechanistic steps of this reaction, such as reactant adsorption and desorption, surface reaction, and desorption of products, has been studied extensively using modem surface-science techniques.17 The structure insensitivity of this reaction is illustrated in Figure 10.4. Here, carbon dioxide turnover frequencies over Rh(l 11) and Rh(100) surfaces are compared with supported Rh catalysts.3 As with CO hydrogenation on nickel, it is readily apparent that, not only does the choice of surface plane matters, but also the size of the active species.18-21 Studies of this system also indicated that, under the reaction conditions of Figure 10.4, the rhodium surface was covered with CO. This means that the reaction is limited by the desorption of carbon monoxide and the adsorption of oxygen. 

After showing the high activity of gold for the activation of carbon monoxide oxidation, the water gas shift reaction is another of the most relevant reactions to be studied. 

Potentiometric techniques have been used to study autonomous reaction rate oscillations over catalysts and carbon monoxide oxidation on platinum has received a considerable amount of attention43,48,58 Possible explanations for reaction rate oscillations over platinum for carbon monoxide oxidation include, (i) strong dependence of activation energy or heat of adsorption on coverage, (ii) surface temperature oscillations, (iii) shift between multiple steady states due to adsorption or desorption of inert species, (iv) periodic oxidation or reduction of the surface. The work of Sales, Turner and Maple has indicated that the most... 

If it is assumed that the mobile oxygen differs from the extralattice oxygen by the absence of an additional electron supplied by the solid, it is quite likely that modifications of the electronic levels of nickel oxide by impurities will not affect substantially the low-temperature rate of carbon monoxide oxidation. Indeed, the rate depends on surface diffusion with subsequent reaction of the adsorbed partners if our scheme is correct. On the contrary such modifications might affect the rate of the high-terapera-ture process insofar as it depends on the availability and heat of adsorption of the extralattice oxygen. As will be seen later, this prediction is correct. 

---