Clay active sites

Dimerization of unsaturated fatty acids, to. so-called dimer acids, is widely practised in industry, where acid-treated clays are invariably used as a catalyst. In the case of oleic acid the major products are dimers, trimers, and isosteric acid. Koster et al. (1998) have investigated the relative importance of the various acid sites as well as structural and textural parameters of montmorrilonite. The interlamellar space dominates the oleic acid dimerization and the active site is the tetrahedrol substitution site. 

When supported complexes are the catalysts, two types of ionic solid were used zeolites and clays. The structures of these solids (microporous and lamellar respectively) help to improve the stability of the complex catalyst under the reaction conditions by preventing the catalytic species from undergoing dimerization or aggregation, both phenomena which are known to be deactivating. In some cases, the pore walls can tune the selectivity of the reaction by steric effects. The strong similarities of zeolites with the protein portion of natural enzymes was emphasized by Herron.20 The protein protects the active site from side reactions, sieves the substrate molecules, and provides a stereochemically demanding void. Metal complexes have been encapsulated in zeolites, successfully mimicking metalloenzymes for oxidation reactions. Two methods of synthesis of such encapsulated/intercalated complexes have been tested, as follows. 

Circulation flow system, measurement of reaction rate, 28 175-178 Clausius-Clapeyron equation, 38 171 Clay see also specific types color tests, 27 101 compensation behavior, 26 304-307 minerals, ship-in-bottle synthesis, metal clusters, 38 368-379 organic syntheses on, 38 264-279 active sites on montmorillonite for aldol reaction, 38 268-269 aldol condensation of enolsilanes with aldehydes and acetals, 38 265-273 Al-Mont acid strength, 38 270-271, 273 comparison of catalysis between Al-Mont and trifluorometfaanesulfonic acid, 38 269-270... 

Surface catalysis affects the kinetics of the process as well. Saltzman et al. (1974) note that in the case of Ca -kaolinite, parathion decomposition proceeds in two stages with different first-order rates (Fig. 16.14). In the first stage, parathion molecules specifically adsorbed on the saturating cation are quickly hydrolyzed by contact with the dissociated hydration water molecules. In the second stage, parathion molecules that might have been initially bound to the clay surface by different mechanisms are very slowly hydrolyzed, as they reach active sites with a proper orientation. 

Mesoporous solids including silicas and acid-treated clays can be functionalised at their surfaces so as to provide high local concentrations of active sites. These sites can be introduced by post-modification or via sol-gel preparations. In this way a range of novel materials with useful catalytic and other properties can be prepared. One of the most valuable applications for these materials is as replacements for environmentally hazardous reagents including corrosive mineral and Lewis acids, caustic bases and toxic metallic compounds. 

The mechanism of this depolymerization is unlikely to be biological but rather is thought to involve catalysis by clay minerals within the soil. At high water levels, access of the hydrophobic polydimethylsiloxane to the active sites on the clay may be limited, thus slowing the depolymerization. The dimethylsilanediol (10) is the major product species... 

Therefore, not only the nature of the surface active sites, as related to the structure, but their availability, as related to the particular texture are discussed as well. The relationship between these two aspects of clay surface reactivity is more heavily emphasized here than is the specific chemistry of reactions occurring on the surface of clays. 

The activity of clay minerals, proven in the reactivity of terrestrial (15-16), and postulated in Martian (j ) soils, is disproportionate to their quantity, relative to other minerals. This is the result of several factors small particle size, high specific surface area, Bronsted and Lewis acidity, redox and other potentially catalytically active sites common to clay minerals, and a limited capacity for size exclusion (which is influenced by the number and valence of exchangeable cations ( )). 

The high dehydrogenation activity observed for Cr3 sa-montmorillonite almost certainly arises from the facile accessibility of the chromium oxide aggregates supported in the clay gallery. Substantial contribution to the observed activity due to active sites at the external surfaces of the mineral is precluded by the virtual absence of activity for the Cr1 88 derivative. Thus, Cr3 53-montmorillonite behaves catalytically much like bulk chromium oxide supported on alumina (17) ... 

Supported metal oxide catalysts are a new class of catalytic materials that are excellent oxidation catalysts when redox surface sites are present. They are ideal catalysts for investigating catalytic molecular/electronic structure-activity selectivity relationships for oxidation reactions because (i) the number of catalytic active sites can be systematically controlled, which allows the determination of the number of participating catalytic active sites in the reaction, (ii) the TOP values for oxidation studies can be quantitatively determined since the number of exposed catalytic active sites can be easily determined, (iii) the oxide support can be varied to examine the effect of different types of ligand on the reaction kinetics, (iii) the molecular and electronic structures of the surface MOj, species can be spectroscopically determined under all environmental conditions for structure-activity determination and (iv) the redox surface sites can be combined with surface acid sites to examine the effect of surface Bronsted or Lewis acid sites. Such fundamental structure-activity information can provide insights and also guide the molecular engineering of advanced hydrocarbon oxidation metal oxide catalysts such as supported metal oxides, polyoxo metallates, metal oxide supported zeolites and molecular sieves, bulk mixed metal oxides and metal oxide supported clays. 

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