Catalytic activity, correlation with species

Activation in CH3-COIF2 at 525 K again resulted in. single Al and and F species combined to form an amorphous Al hydroxyfluoride phase undetectable by XRD analysis. Only this activation procedure provided the full catalytic activity obtained with p-AlFr, the reference catalyst." which correlates well with the fact that y-alumina activated in CH3-CCIF2 at 525K can be seen to occupy positions on the two chemical-state plots very close to those of p-AlFv... 

However, there is no indication that the presence of the observed signals correlates with the polymerization efficiency of the catalyst. In fact, systems which exhibit these signals are less effective catalysts and in some cases do not even polymerize ethylene under the chosen conditions. In contrast, systems without EPR signals correlated to Ti species are foimd to be catalytically active. It has to be emphasized at this point that the lack of an ESR signal associated to Ti + ions, in cases where no additional argon or electron bombardment has been applied, cannot be interpreted as an indication of the absence of Ti + centers at the surface. It has been discussed in the literature that small spin-lattice-relaxation times, dipole coupling, and super exchange may leave a very small fraction of Ti " that is detectable in an EPR experiment [115,116]. From a combination of XPS and EPR results it unhkely that Ti " centers play an important role in the catalytic activity of the catalysts. 

Catalytic resnlts are well correlated with the acid strength of the active species irrespective of their natnre (Lewis or Bronsted). On the other hand, there is no clear correlation between the density of the active sites and the catalytic performances. While the FS03H/Si02 catalyst is very active (yields 99.5 -100%, Table 48.2), AICI3/MCM shows only moderate yields (14.3-20.1%) to N-acylsulfonamide, even if both samples exhibit a similar density (25 x lO , Table 48.1). 

The various spectroscopic techniques had revealed that Ti4+ ions in TS-1, Ti-beta and, Ti-MCM-41 are 4-coordinate in the dehydrated state. Tetrapodal Ti(OSi)4 and tripodal Ti(OH)(OSi)3 are the main Ti species. Upon exposure to H20, NH3, H202, or TBHP, they increase their coordination number to 5 or 6. On samples in which the Ti4+ has been grafted onto the silica (referred to as Ti f MCM-41), a dipodal Ti species (Ti(OH)2(OSi)2) may also be present. As a result of interaction with the oxidant ROOH (R = H, alkyl), the formation of 7)1- and p2-peroxo (Ti-O-O-), hydroperoxo (Ti-OOH), and superoxo (Ti02 ) species has been observed experimentally (Section III). A linear correlation between the concentration of the p2-hydroperoxo species and the catalytic activity for propene epoxidation has also been noted from vibration spectroscopy (133). 

The correlation between the concentration of the superoxide species, A and B, and catalytic activity is further illustrated in Tables LIII and LIV. A TS-1 sample (without any trace of anatase) as well as another one containing some anatase were prepared by the method of Thangaraj et al. (138) (with some minor modifications). A sample of TS-1 (fluoride) was prepared in a fluoride medium. 

The experiments using Sn adatoms are Intended to test for a correlation between the activity of these species as promoters for CO oxidation kinetics and their influence on the CO vibrational spectrum. Watanabe et. al. have proposed an "adatom oxidation" model for the catalytic activity of these adatoms (23). They propose that the function of the Sn adatoms is to catalyze the generation of adsorbed 0 or OH species at a lower potential than would be required on unpromoted Pt (23). The latter species then react with neighboring adsorbed CO molecules to accomplish the overall oxidation reaction. One implication of this proposed mechanism is that the adsorbed adatom is expected to have little, if any, direct interaction with the adsorbed CO reactant partner. Vibrational spectroscopy can be used to test for such an interaction. 

The anion vacancy sites have acid properties. As stated above, the catalytic activity and the hydrogenolytic behavior correlated with the acid properties of the catalyst, as well as the extent of reduction. Therefore, the adsorption of an aryl group will occur on the coordinatively unsaturated molybdenum sites generated during reduction. According to the reaction scheme for the hydrogenation of ethylene over a reduced MoOj-AljOj catalyst, ethylene becomes it-bonded at a second vacant ligand position of a coordinatively unsaturated Mo species and inserts to form the [Pg.267]

In many supported catalytic systems, it is nearly impossible to determine either the specific species, responsible for the observed catalytic activity, or the mechanistic pathway of the reaction. Using a defined SAM system in which careful molecular design is followed by controlled deposition into a solid-supported catalyst of known morphology, surface coverage, mode of binding and molecular orientation, allows direct correlation of an observed catalytic activity with the structure on the molecular scale. SAM and LB-systems allow detailed and meaningful studies of established surface bound catalysts to understand their behavior in heterogeneous... 

In CO hydrogenation, the achvity and selechvity to C1-C5 oxygenates over the bimetallic samples are higher than those of the monometallic counterparts [187-190]. Bimetallic catalysts also showed improved activity in the hydroformylation of ethylene compared to either of the monometallic catalysts [191]. The promotion for higher alcohol production is proposed to be associated with the adjacent Ru-Co sites. However, the lack of an exhaustive characterization of catalysts does not allow a clear correlation to be established between the characteristics of the active sites and the catalytic behavior. A formyl species bonded to a Ru-Co bimetallic site has been proposed to be the intermediate in the alcohol synthesis in these systems. A subsequent reaction with an alkyl-surface group would lead to the C2-oxygenate production [187]. 

In all above mentioned applications, the surface properties of group IIIA elements based solids are of primary importance in governing the thermodynamics of the adsorption, reaction, and desorption steps, which represent the core of a catalytic process. The method often used to clarify the mechanism of catalytic action is to search for correlations between the catalyst activity and selectivity and some other properties of its surface as, for instance, surface composition and surface acidity and basicity [58-60]. Also, since contact catalysis involves the adsorption of at least one of the reactants as a step of the reaction mechanism, the correlation of quantities related to the reactant chemisorption with the catalytic activity is necessary. The magnitude of the bonds between reactants and catalysts is obviously a relevant parameter. It has been quantitatively confirmed that only a fraction of the surface sites is active during catalysis, the more reactive sites being inhibited by strongly adsorbed species and the less reactive sites not allowing the formation of active species [61]. 

On nitrided aluminophosphates, AlPON, Massinon et al. [206] observed on a series of six samples with increasing nitrogen contents a good correlation between the catalytic activity in the Knoevenagel condensation reaction and the amount of surface NH, species (1 < x < 4) quantified by the Kjeldahl method. The authors suggest that those species are not the only active species and evoke an additional role of the nitride ions in the reaction [206] on the other hand, Benitez et al. [207] suggest hydroxyls linked to aluminum cations in the vicinity of terminal P-NH2 groups as basic centers. 

Figure 1. Correlation of catalytic activity with concentration of formyl and methoxy species as a function of % of MgO.

Correlation between the two observed Mn species and catalytic activity properties was attempted. For this purpose, turnover frequencies (TOF) referred to the bulk content of the different Mn species were derived from the results of catalytic activity tests in CH4 combustion. TOF referred to Mn in Al(2) site was found to be almost constant on varying the overall Mn content. This suggested a possible correlation between catalyst activity and this Mn species. However, an alternative correlation was found by normalizing the catalytic activity to the surface area. Such normalized activity correlated well with the overall Mn content. No further evidence was found in favor of either these two alternatives, so that no definitive conclusion could be drawn. 

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