Catalysis/catalysts performance determinants

It should be also considered that catalyst performance drives manufacturing costs and catalyst performance determines overall production plant investment. On average, each euro invested in catalyst results in about 250 of chemical product values. We may thus conclude that catalysis is not only a driver for economy of chemical production but also a key to sustainability [50]. 

Hence the dimension ("the order") of the reaction is different, even in the simplest case, and hence a comparison of the two rate constants has little meaning. Comparisons of rates are meaningful only if the catalysts follow the same mechanism and if the product formation can be expressed by the same rate equation. In this instance we can talk about rate enhancements of catalysts relative to another. If an uncatalysed reaction and a catalysed one occur simultaneously in a system we may determine what part of the product is made via the catalytic route and what part isn t. In enzyme catalysis and enzyme mimics one often compares the k, of the uncatalysed reaction with k2 of the catalysed reaction if the mechanisms of the two reactions are the same this may be a useful comparison. A practical yardstick of catalyst performance in industry is the space-time-yield mentioned above, that is to say the yield of kg of product per reactor volume per unit of time (e.g. kg product/m3.h), assuming that other factors such as catalyst costs, including recycling, and work-up costs remain the same. 

At this time it had become possible to determine experimentally total surface area and the distribution of sizes and total volume of pores. Wheeler set forth to provide the theoretical development of calculating the role of this pore structure in determining catalyst performance. In a very slow reaction, reactants can diffuse to the center of the catalyst pellet before they react. On the other hand, in the case of a very active catalyst containing small pores, a reactant molecule will react (due to collision with pore walls) before it can diffuse very deeply into the pore structure. Such a fast reaction for which diffusion is slower than reaction will use only the outer pore mouths of a catalyst pellet. An important result of the theory is that when diffusion is slower than reaction, all the important kinetic quantities such as activity, selectivity, temperature coefficient and kinetic reaction order become dependent on the pore size and pellet size with which a pellet is prepared. This is because pore size and pellet size determine the degree to which diffusion affects reaction rates. Wheeler saw that unlike many aspects of heterogeneous catalysis, the effects of pore structure on catalyst behavior can be put on quite a rigorous basis, making predictions from theory relatively accurate and reliable. 

A catalyst performs by altering the kinetics, or speed, of the reaction. When a catalyst turns one molecule into another, the corresponding speed is called the turnover number (TON). This measures how many molecules are being converted by the catalyst. In catalysis reactions where the binding and reaction sites are well understood, you can also determine the turnover frequency (TOF), which describes the speed, or Rate (n), at which the catalyst can work. 

As the science of catalysis has progressed the methodology of catalyst development becomes more rational and sophisticated, based on knowledge about catalysis and the fundamental requirements a catalyst should fulfil also, experimental techniques, design of experiments and data analysis in the process of discovery of new catalysts have been significantly improved. From an applied viewpoint, catalysts that are more efficient than present ones are needed for many processes to reduce consumption of feedstocks and energy. This determines the direction of present catalyst development apart from the need for discovering new catalysts for novel reactions. In the development process emphasis is usually put on three aspects of catalyst performance in the order selectivity > deactivation > activity. 

Most of the techniques discussed above are typically used ex situ for catalyst characterization before and after reaction. This is normally the easiest way to carry out the experiments, and is often sufficient to acquire the required information. However, it is known that the reaction environment plays an important role in determining the structure and properties of working catalysts. Consequently, it is desirable to also try to perform catalytic studies under realistic conditions, either in situ [113,114,157, 191-193] or in the so-called operando mode, with simultaneous kinetics measurements [194-196], In addition, advances in high-throughput (also known as combinatorial) catalysis call for the fast and simultaneous analysis of a large number of catalytic samples [197,198], This represents a new direction for further research. 

In this section, we discuss the high performance of the Rejo cluster/HZSM-5 catalyst, its active structure and dynamic structural transformation during the selechve catalysis, and the reaction mechanism for direct phenol synthesis from benzene and O2 on this novel catalyst [73, 107]. Detailed characterization and determination of active Re species have been conducted by XRD, Al solid-state MAS NMR, conventional XAFS and in situ time-resolved energy dispersive XAFS, which revealed the origin and prospects of high phenol selectivity on the novel Re/HZSM-5 catalyst [73]. 

The activated Ba(OH)2 was used as a basic catalyst for the Claisen-Schmidt (CS) condensation of a variety of ketones and aromatic aldehydes (288). The reactions were performed in ethanol as solvent at reflux temperature. Excellent yields of the condensation products were obtained (80-100%) within 1 h in a batch reactor. Reaction rates and yields were generally higher than those reported for alkali metal hydroxides as catalysts. Neither the Cannizaro reaction nor self-aldol condensation of the ketone was observed, a result that was attributed to the catalyst s being more nucleophilic than basic. Thus, better selectivity to the condensation product was observed than in homogeneous catalysis under similar conditions. It was found that the reaction takes place on the catalyst surface, and when the reactants were small ketones, the rate-determining step was found to be the surface reaction, whereas with sterically hindered ketones the adsorption process was rate determining. 

A key aspect of metal oxides is that they possess multiple functional properties acid-base, electron transfer and transport, chemisorption by a and 7i-bonding of hydrocarbons, O-insertion and H-abstraction, etc. This multi-functionality allows them to catalyze complex selective multistep transformations of hydrocarbons, as well as other catalytic reactions (NO,c conversion, for example). The control of the catalyst multi-functionality requires the ability to control not only the nanostructure, e.g. the nano-scale environment around the active site, " but also the nano-architecture, e.g. the 3D spatial organization of nano-entities. The active site is not the only relevant aspect for catalysis. The local area around the active site orients or assists the coordination of the reactants, and may induce sterical constrains on the transition state, and influences short-range transport (nano-scale level). Therefore, it plays a critical role in determining the reactivity and selectivity in multiple pathways of transformation. In addition, there are indications pointing out that the dynamics of adsorbed species, e.g. their mobility during the catalytic processes which is also an important factor determining the catalytic performances in complex surface reaction, " is influenced by the nanoarchitecture. 

Substantial variations of the organic solvent used in triphase catalysis with polystyrene-bound onium ions have been reported only for the reactions of 1-bromo-octane with iodide ion (Eq. (4))74) and with cyanide ion (Eq. (3)) 73). In both cases observed rate constants increased with increasing solvent polarity from decane to toluene to o-dichlorobenzene or chlorobenzene. Since the swelling of the catalysts increased in the same order, and the experiments were performed under conditions of partial intraparticle diffusional control, it is not possible to determine how the solvents affected intrinsic reactivity. 

A series of Chromia-Alumina aerogel catalysts containing different contents of chromium was prepared by autoclave method. The specific areas of the catalysis were measured with Ng at 77°K according to the BET method. Their structural properties were determined from the X ray diffraction patterns recorded on a philips diffractometer PW 1050/70. EPR measurements were performed with a 8ruker ZOO TT spectrometer at 77°K operating in X band. DPPH was used as the g value standard. Kinetic data were obtained in dynamic pyrex microreactor operating at atmospheric pressure as described elsewhere (ref. 3). 

Table 19.5 illustrates pertinent organometallic catalysts and their performance. When scanning the literature on organometallic catalysts, one searches in vain for numbers regarding catalyst process stability, as embodied by TTNs. Upon closer inspection, none of the catalysts is recovered and re-used, so the TTN was never determined. Instead, catalyst productivity is a key dimension of merit in homogeneous catalysis, so often the turnover number, TON [mol product (mol catalyst)-1], or its equivalent, the frequently used [S]/[C] ratio, is referenced in the literature and thus also in Table 19.5. 

---