Catalyst selective sorption techniques

Many investigators use pulse techniques in which a catalyst reacts with hydrocarbons, oxygen etc. separately in time. This can provide an insight into the nature and significance of the individual reaction and sorption steps, but it should be emphasized that selectivities and other data may be unrepresentative for conditions in a flow reactor. In particular, selectivities may be considerably lower under steady state conditions. If the selectivity differences between pulse and flow experiments are very large, a cyclic mode of operation may be attractive for the practical application of the catalyst concerned. Oxidation and reduction are then separated. 

Difficulties are encountered in determining NO2 using the ozone-chemiluminescence technique due to the non-specific conversion of several nitrogen oxides/oxyacids on the Mo catalyst. Use of FeS04 f°r N02-to-N0 conversion has been described, but humidity-dependent sorption/desorption effects have been reported, e.g., PAN (11). Alternatively, a commercial NO2 analyzer based on surface chemiluminescence of NO2 in the presence of a luminol solution, has been introduced which exhibits the requisite sensitively and selectivity. 

Cation exchanged zeolites are successfully applied as catalysts or selective sorbents in separation technologies. " For both catalytic and sorption processes a concerted action of polarizing cations and basic oxygen atoms is important. In addition, transition metal cation embedded in zeolites exhibit peculiar redox properties because of the lower coordination in zeolite cavities compared to other supports." " Therefore, it is important to establish the strength and properties of active centers and their positions in the zeolite structure. Various experimental methods and simulation techniques have been applied to study the positions of cations in the zeolite framework and the interaction of the cations with guest molecules.Here, some of the most recent theoretical studies of cation exchanged zeolites are summarized. 

Dynamic vapour phase techniques are interesting tools for the determination of these properties. When compared to standard wettability experiments, they provide two main benefits. They can easily and reproducibly be applied to powders and a wide variety of probe molecules can be selected. In the current study dynamic gravimetric vapour sorption (DVS) and inverse gas chromatography (IGC) have been used to characterise the energetic and acid-base properties of a calcined ruthenium oxide / MCM41 catalyst as well as the corresponding MCM41 support. 

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