Catalysis in Journals

The next level is that of shaped catalysts, in the form of extrudates, spheres, or monoliths on length scales varying from millimeters to centimeters, and occasionally even larger. Such matters are to a large extent the province of materials science. Typical issues of interest are porosity, strength, and attrition resistance such that catalysts are able to survive the conditions inside industrial reactors. This area of catalysis is mainly (though not exclusively) dealt with by industry, in particular by catalyst manufacturers. Consequently, much of the knowledge is covered by patents. 

The characteristic times on which catalytic events occur vary more or less in parallel with the different length scales discussed above. The activation and breaking of a chemical bond inside a molecule occurs in the picosecond regime, completion of an entire reaction cycle from complexation between catalyst and reactants through separation from the product may take anywhere between microseconds for the fastest enzymatic reactions to minutes for complicated reactions on surfaces. On the mesoscopic level, diffusion in and outside pores, and through shaped catalyst particles may take between seconds and minutes, and the residence times of molecules inside entire reactors may be from seconds to, effectively, infinity if the reactants end up in unwanted byproducts such as coke, which stay on the catalyst. 

The mesoscopic domain of real catalysts is mostly covered by the typical catalysis periodicals, such as Applied Catalysis, the Journal of Catalysis, Catalysis Letters, Topics in Catalysis, Catalysis Today, Microporous Materials and Zeolites, although occasionally articles also appear in Journal of Physical Chemistry and Physical Chemistry-Chemical Physics, and many others. 

The macroscopic domain is largely covered by journals dedicated to chemical engineering Chemical Engineering Science, Industrial Engineering Chemistry Research, and the Journal of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers AIChE Journal) are some of the best known in this field. 

Exciting, new results that may not yet be fully understood but for which it is important that the catalysis community learns about them, are published in the form of Letters, Notes and Rapid Communications. Specialized Letter Journals are Chemical Communications, Catalysis Letters, Chemical Physics Letters and Physical Review Letters, while several regular journals have sections for letters, such as the Priority Communications in the Journal of Catalysis. 

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