Catalytic sites

Catalysis in a single fluid phase (liquid, gas or supercritical fluid) is called homogeneous catalysis because the phase in which it occurs is relatively unifonn or homogeneous. The catalyst may be molecular or ionic. Catalysis at an interface (usually a solid surface) is called heterogeneous catalysis, an implication of this tenn is that more than one phase is present in the reactor, and the reactants are usually concentrated in a fluid phase in contact with the catalyst, e.g., a gas in contact with a solid. Most catalysts used in the largest teclmological processes are solids. The tenn catalytic site (or active site) describes the groups on the surface to which reactants bond for catalysis to occur the identities of the catalytic sites are often unknown because most solid surfaces are nonunifonn in stmcture and composition and difficult to characterize well, and the active sites often constitute a small minority of the surface sites. 

The components in catalysts called promoters lack significant catalytic activity tliemselves, but tliey improve a catalyst by making it more active, selective, or stable. A chemical promoter is used in minute amounts (e.g., parts per million) and affects tlie chemistry of tlie catalysis by influencing or being part of tlie catalytic sites. A textural (structural) promoter, on tlie otlier hand, is used in massive amounts and usually plays a role such as stabilization of tlie catalyst, for instance, by reducing tlie tendency of tlie porous material to collapse or sinter and lose internal surface area, which is a mechanism of deactivation. 

Because the reaction takes place in the Hquid, the amount of Hquid held in the contacting vessel is important, as are the Hquid physical properties such as viscosity, density, and surface tension. These properties affect gas bubble size and therefore phase boundary area and diffusion properties for rate considerations. Chemically, the oxidation rate is also dependent on the concentration of the anthrahydroquinone, the actual oxygen concentration in the Hquid, and the system temperature (64). The oxidation reaction is also exothermic, releasing the remaining 45% of the heat of formation from the elements. Temperature can be controUed by the various options described under hydrogenation. Added heat release can result from decomposition of hydrogen peroxide or direct reaction of H2O2 and hydroquinone (HQ) at a catalytic site (eq. 19). 

Fig. 13. Single-sheet diffusion transfer plate (a) stmcture (b) upon exposure to light (c) development and (d) washing off and finish. In (a) the plate is first coated with a receiver layer of small (<5 nm) catalytic sites. The photographic layer is a spectrally sensitized silver haUde emulsion. In (c) the exposed areas develop as silver metal. Unexposed areas diffuse down to the receiver layer and form the printing image. In (d) the emulsion is washed off, revealing...

Dehydrogenation processes for acetone, methyl isobutyl ketone [108-10-1], and higher ketones (qv) utilizing, in one process, a copper-based catalyst have been disclosed (18,19). Dehydrogenation reaction is used to study the acid—base character of catalytic sites on a series of oxides (20,21). 

Preliminary investigations involving a P-lactam-sensitive, bifimctional D-alanyl-carboxypeptidase—transpeptidase (C Pase—T Pase) from Streptomjces R61 have identified the three-dimensional stmcture and catalytic site of interaction with penicillins (63). 

Fig. 5. Main reactions of catalytic reforming. Pt and acid refer to predominant active catalytic sites.

The typical industrial catalyst has both microscopic and macroscopic regions with different compositions and stmctures the surfaces of industrial catalysts are much more complex than those of the single crystals of metal investigated in ultrahigh vacuum experiments. Because surfaces of industrial catalysts are very difficult to characterize precisely and catalytic properties are sensitive to small stmctural details, it is usually not possible to identify the specific combinations of atoms on a surface, called catalytic sites or active sites, that are responsible for catalysis. Experiments with catalyst poisons, substances that bond strongly with catalyst surfaces and deactivate them, have shown that the catalytic sites are usually a small fraction of the catalyst surface. Most models of catalytic sites rest on rather shaky foundations. 

A selective poison is one that binds to the catalyst surface in such a way that it blocks the catalytic sites for one kind of reaction but not those for another. Selective poisons are used to control the selectivity of a catalyst. For example, nickel catalysts supported on alumina are used for selective removal of acetjiene impurities in olefin streams (58). The catalyst is treated with a continuous feed stream containing sulfur to poison it to an exacdy controlled degree that does not affect the activity for conversion of acetylene to ethylene but does poison the activity for ethylene hydrogenation to ethane. Thus the acetylene is removed and the valuable olefin is not converted. 

This conceptual link extends to surfaces that are not so obviously similar in stmcture to molecular species. For example, the early Ziegler catalysts for polymerization of propylene were a-TiCl. Today, supported Ti complexes are used instead (26,57). These catalysts are selective for stereospecific polymerization, giving high yields of isotactic polypropylene from propylene. The catalytic sites are beheved to be located at the edges of TiCl crystals. The surface stmctures have been inferred to incorporate anion vacancies that is, sites where CL ions are not present and where TL" ions are exposed (66). These cations exist in octahedral surroundings, The polymerization has been explained by a mechanism whereby the growing polymer chain and an adsorbed propylene bonded cis to it on the surface undergo an insertion reaction (67). In this respect, there is no essential difference between the explanation of the surface catalyzed polymerization and that catalyzed in solution. 

There are numerous stmctures that are similar to 2eofites, such as aluminophosphate molecular sieves, AlPOs, but these have not found catalytic apphcations. Zeofites can be modified by incorporation of cations in the crystalline lattice which are not exchangeable ions, but can play catalytic roles. For example, sificahte, which has the stmcture of ZSM-5 but without Al, incorpora ting Ti in the lattice is a commercial catalyst for oxidation of phenol with H2O2 to give diphenols the catalytic sites may be isolated Ti cations (85). 

M0S2 is one of the most active hydroprocessing catalysts, but it is expensive, and the economical way to apply it is as highly dispersed material on a support, y-Al202. The activity of the supported catalyst is increased by the presence of promoter ions, Co " or Ni ". The stmctures of the catalysts are fairly well understood the M0S2 is present in layers only a few atoms thick on the support surface, and the promoter ions are present at the edges of the M0S2 layers, where the catalytic sites are located (100,101). 

The presence of other functional groups ia an acetylenic molecule frequendy does not affect partial hydrogenation because many groups such as olefins are less strongly adsorbed on the catalytic site. Supported palladium catalysts deactivated with lead (such as the Liadlar catalyst), sulfur, or quinoline have been used for hydrogenation of acetylenic compound to (predominantiy) cis-olefins. 

Triethyl aluminum, complexed with another electron donor, typically ethyl -anisate [94-30-4J, was used as cocatalyst with the FT-1 catalyst and acted to reduce and stabilize the active titanium-containing catalytic site. The early versions of the FT-1 catalyst required extremely high molar ratios (>400 1) of aluminum to titanium to obtain satisfactory activity and selectivity to isotactic polymer. This resulted in excessively high aluminum residues in the polymer. Later versions of the FT-1 catalyst attained much higher activity. 

Fig. 1. Inhibition of porcine pancreatic a-amylase. Substrates, an inhibitor, and their binding orientations in the active site are shown schematically. The arrows denote the catalytic site in each case, (a) The small substrate, G2PNP [17400-77-0] (3) (b) the large substrate, G OH [13532-61 -1] (4) and (c) the inhibitor, 4-phenyl imidazole (5) and the substrate G2PNP (3) in the binding orientation for noncompetitive inhibition. The binding orientation of G2PNP...

The mechanism of poisoning automobile exhaust catalysts has been identified (71). Upon combustion in the cylinder tetraethyllead (TEL) produces lead oxide which would accumulate in the combustion chamber except that ethylene dibromide [106-93-4] or other similar haUde compounds were added to the gasoline along with TEL to form volatile lead haUde compounds. Thus lead deposits in the cylinder and on the spark plugs are minimized. Volatile lead hahdes (bromides or chlorides) would then exit the combustion chamber, and such volatile compounds would diffuse to catalyst surfaces by the same mechanisms as do carbon monoxide compounds. When adsorbed on the precious metal catalyst site, lead haUde renders the catalytic site inactive. 

Poisoning is operationally defined. Often catalysts beheved to be permanently poisoned can be regenerated (5) (see Catalysts, regeneration). A species may be a poison ia some reactions, but not ia others, depending on its adsorption strength relative to that of other species competing for catalytic sites (24), and the temperature of the system. Catalysis poisons have been classified according to chemical species, types of reactions poisoned, and selectivity for active catalyst sites (24). 

Volume 97 Zeolites A Refined Tool for Designing Catalytic Sites. Proceedings of... 

Figure 16.21 Structure of one subunit of the core protein of Slndbls virus. The protein has a similar fold to chymotrypsin and other serine proteases, comprising two Greek key motifs separated by an active site cleft. The C-terminus of the protein is bound in the catalytic site, making the coat protein inactive (Adapted from S. Lee et al., Structure 4 531-541, 1996.)...

FIGURE 15.15 (a) The structure of a glycogen phosphorylase monomer, showing the locations of the catalytic site, the PLP cofactor site, the allosteric effector site, the glycogen storage site, the tower helix (residnes 262 throngh 278), and the snbnnit interface. 

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