Catalyst life and poisons

In seeking to apply any new catalytic material the useful life of the catalyst is important. Loss of activity may be inherent i.e. an inevitable consequence of the chemical nature of the catalytic material, reactants and products, or a result of poisoning . 

In practice, there are a number of serious limitations to the application of homogeneous catalysis. 

Firstly, no suitable catalyst may have been found in the past. For example, organometallic chemistry has introduced soluble and stable zero- or low-valency metal complexes, and derived hydrido-complexes, which catalyse hydrogenations in the liquid-phase. But with the enormous amount of accumulated general and company-specific information and experience in the 

Metal impurities or corrosion products Neutral salts 

Side reaction with reactants, solvent etc. of L or A by impurities 

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