Catalysts surface areas

Surface Area. This property is of paramount importance to catalyst performance because in general catalyst activity increases as the surface area of the catalyst increases. However because some reaction rates are strongly dependent on the nature of the stmcture of the catalytic surface, a linear correlation of catalyst activity with surface area should not be expected. As the catalyst surface area increases, for many reactions the selectivity of the catalyst is found to decrease. If the support material is completely inert to the reactants and products, this effect may be diminished somewhat. 

The primary determinant of catalyst surface area is the support surface area, except in the case of certain catalysts where extremely fine dispersions of active material are obtained. As a rule, catalysts intended for catalytic conversions utilizing hydrogen, eg, hydrogenation, hydrodesulfurization, and hydrodenitrogenation, can utilize high surface area supports, whereas those intended for selective oxidation, eg, olefin epoxidation, require low surface area supports to avoid troublesome side reactions. 

Surface Area. Overall catalyst surface area can be determined by the BET method mentioned eadier, but mote specific techniques are requited to determine a catalyst s active surface area. X-ray diffraction techniques can give data from which the average particle si2e and hence the active surface area may be calculated. Or, it may be necessary to find an appropriate gas or Hquid that will adsorb only on the active surface and to measure the extent of adsorption under controUed conditions. In some cases, it maybe possible to measure the products of reaction between a reactive adsorbent and the active site. Radioactively tagged materials are frequentiy usehil in this appHcation. Once a correlation has been estabHshed between either total or active surface area and catalyst performance (particulady activity), it may be possible to use the less costiy method for quaHty assurance purposes. 

Automobile exhaust catalysts have been developed that maximize the catalyst surface area available to the flowing exhaust gas without incurring excessive pressure drop. Two types have been extensively studied the monolithic honeycomb type and the pellet type. 

Vanadium also promotes dehydrogenation reactions, but less than nickel. Vanadium s contribution to hydrogen yield is 20% to 50% of nickel s contribution, but vanadium is a more severe poison. Unlike nickel, vanadium does not stay on the surface of the catalyst. Instead, it migrates to the inner (zeolite) part of the catalyst and destroys the zeolite crystal structure. Catalyst surface area and activity are permanently lost. 

Finally, one must know the effect of catalyst particle size on Kw. For a pore diffusion-controlled reaction, activity should be inversely proportional to catalyst particle diameter, that is directly proportional to external catalyst surface area. 

There is little data available to quantify these factors. The loss of catalyst surface area with high temperatures is well-known (136). One hundred hours of dry heat at 900°C are usually sufficient to reduce alumina surface area from 120 to 40 m2/g. Platinum crystallites can grow from 30 A to 600 A in diameter, and metal surface area declines from 20 m2/g to 1 m2/g. Crystal growth and microstructure changes are thermodynamically favored (137). Alumina can react with copper oxide and nickel oxide to form aluminates, with great loss of surface area and catalytic activity. The loss of metals by carbonyl formation and the loss of ruthenium by oxide formation have been mentioned before. 

Iron compounds are common catalysts for ammonium perchlorate propellant systems, and burning-rate augmentation is a strong function of catalyst surface area and shape. 

Figure 1.3. Rate and catalyst potential response to step changes in applied current during C2H4 oxidation on Pt deposited on YSZ, an O2 conductor. T = 370°C, p02=4.6 kPa, Pc2H4=0.36 kPa. The catalytic rate increase, Ar, is 25 times larger than the rate before current application, r0, and 74000 times larger than the rate I/2F,16 of 02 supply to the catalyst. N0 is the Pt catalyst surface area, in mol Pt, and TOF is the catalytic turnover frequency (mol O reacting per surface Pt mol per s). Reprinted with permission from Academic Press.

Since electrochemical promotion (NEMCA) studies involve the use of porous metal films which act simultaneously both as a normal catalyst and as a working electrode, it is important to characterize these catalyst-electrodes both from a catalytic and from an electrocatalytic viewpoint. In the former case one would like to know the gas-exposed catalyst surface area A0 (in m2 or in metal mols, for which we use the symbol NG throughout this book) and the value, r0, of the catalytic rate, r, under open-circuit conditions. 

Subsequently one plots InNo vs tHe and extrapolates to tHe=0. This plot provides the 02 desorption kinetics at the chosen temperature T. The intersect with the N0 axis gives the desired catalyst surface area NG (Fig. 4.8) from which AG can also be computed. More precisely NG is the maximum reactive oxygen uptake of the catalyst-electrode but this value is sufficient for catalyst-electrode characterization. 

Another use of Eq. (5.3) is that by measuring tD and and computing A via Eq. (4.19) one can estimate the catalyst surface area NG. Alternatively this also can be done by comparing the parameter 2FNG/I with the experimentally measured time constant t via Eq. (4.32). 

The catalyst surface area is defined in the following relationship (3 ) ... 

A Catalyst surface area per unit volume of reactor, cm /liter. 

Example 10.10 Suppose the reaction in Example 10.9 is first order. Determine the pseudohomogeneous rate constant, the rate constant based on catalyst mass, and the rate constant based on catalyst surface area. 

Catalyst Surface area m2 g-1 Reaction rates Reaction (4)1> Reaction (5) ... 

Catalysts and their carriers are provided in micro channels by various means and in various geometric forms. In a simple variant, the catalyst itself constitutes the micro-reactor construction material without need for any carrier [2-A], In this case, however, the catalyst surface area equals that of the reactor wall and hence is comparatively low. Accordingly, applications are typically restricted to either fast reactions or processing at low flow rates for slow reactions (to enhance the residence time). 

Catalysts can be incorporated by the various known methods. So far, sputtered platinum was used. Such films are dense so that the catalyst surface area equals the channel surface. 

Catalyst surface area 850 m g- Outer device dimensions 10 mm X 40 mm x 1.0 mm... 

OS 58] [R 15] ]P 41] The surface-to-volume ratio was varied by testing both 1000 and 500 gm wide micro channels [122]. By this comparably small increase in catalyst surface area, the yield of the epoxidation could be doubled. 

Gas inlet flow channels width 25 pm Catalyst surface area 0.57 m g- ... 

GL 16] [R 12] [P 15] As excess of cyclohexene was used, the kinetics were zero order for this species concentration and first order with respect to hydrogen [11]. For this pseudo-first-order reaction, a volumetric rate constant of 16 s was determined, considering the catalyst surface area of 0.57 m g and the catalyst loading density of1g cm. ... 

Catalyst layer architecture As a consequence of the diminishing remrns from ever higher dispersion, the effort to increase the active catalyst surface area per unit mass of Pt has centered in recent years primarily on optimization of catalyst layer properties, aiming to maximize catalyst utilization in fuel cell electrodes based on Pt catalyst particle sizes of 2-5 nm. High catalyst utilization is conditioned on access to the largest possible percentage of the total catalyst surface area embedded in a catalyst... 

The Ti02/Si02 catalyst (surface area = 290 ), for which XRD... 

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