Ethane chemisorption

Adsorption of reactants on the surface of a catalyst represents the first elementary step in a catalytic reaction cycle. Chemisorption and physisorption are two kinds of adsorption, and differ according to the type and strength of bond. In physisorption, the adsorption bond is due to the rather weak van der Waals interactions between permanent or induced dipoles. Chemisorption occurs if a real chemical bond is formed between the substrate and the adsorbate. Molecules may adsorb intact or dissociate on the surface. Catalytic reactions almost always involve the dissociation of at least one of the reacting molecules. In certain highly stable molecules, such as methane or ethane, chemisorption is not possible without the rupture of a C-H bond. Dissociation of molecules on metals leads to predominantly neutral fragments (homolytic bond splitting), whereas on oxides, the dissociation... 

Anghel AT, Wales DJ, Jenkins SJ, et al Pathways for dissociative ethane chemisorption on Pt 110 (1x2) nsing density functional theory, Chem Phys Lett 413(4—6) 289-293, 2005. 

To give an idea of the wide rai e of catalytic systems that have been investigated where chemisorption data were essential to interpret the results, some of the author s papers will be discussed. Measurements were reported on the surface areas of a very wide range of metals that catalyze the hydrogenation of ethane. In the earliest paper, on nickel, the specific catalytic activity of a supported metal was accurately measured for the first time it was shown also that the reaction rate was direcdy proportional to the nickel surface area. Studies on the same reaction... 

The answer to the first question is undoubtedly a positive one. The classical papers by Beeck et al., Rideal et al., and others have shown that ethylene disproportionates upon chemisorption into ethane and carbonaceous (adsorbed) residues (see 162). This disproportionation takes place at relatively low temperatures at room temperature and lower (see 162 for review). Moreover, the intensity analysis of LEED data has shown that upon chemisorption of ethylene, ethylidyne structures are formed. Similar structures are also formed by dissociative adsorption of higher olefins (181,182). There is thus no doubt with regard the first question. 

Selwood (100,101) has also employed this technique to study the chemisorption of ethylene, ethane, benzene, and cyclohexane on supported nickel catalysts. Among the new information and important conclusions derived from these measurements are the following ... 

Throughout these studies, no product other than propane was observed. However, subsequent studies by Sinfelt et al. [249—251] using silica-supported Group VIII metals (Co, Ni, Cu, Ru, Os, Rh, Ir, Pd and Pt) have shown that, in addition to hydrogenation, hydrocracking to ethane and methane occurs with cobalt, nickel, ruthenium and osmium, but not with the other metals studied. From the metal surface areas determined by hydrogen and carbon monoxide chemisorption, the specific activities of... 

The other example to be discussed in this context comes from Pettit s group. Simultaneous treatment of the iron complex (/u.-CH2)[Fe(CO)4]2 (35) with hydrogen and ethylene gives both methane (66%) and propylene (6%), the expected products from the two separate reactions. In addition, ethane (—600%) is formed, with the actual hydrogenation catalyst still to be determined (72). Because simple diazoalkanes provide the cleanest method to metal-attached alkylidenes, and with the expectation that dissociative chemisorption of diazomethane to absorbed CH2 and free N2 would occur, the reactions of CH2N2 with and without H2 over various transition metals were examined in a careful study with regard to the product ratio (73). It was found, that gas-phase decomposition of the parent diazoalkane upon passage over active Ni, Pd, Fe, Co, Ru, or Cu-... 

Each of the various processes of adsorption may have desorptions of the reverse forms, for example, dissociative adsorption may have as its reverse, associative desorption. However, the process of chemisorption may not be reversible [ 1.2.2(c)]. Desorption may lead to species other than that adsorbed, for example, ethane dissociatively adsorbed on clean nickel gives little or no ethane upon desorption, 1-butene dissociatively adsorbed to methylallyl and H on zinc oxide gives mainly 2-butenes upon desorption, and some W03 may evaporate from tungsten covered with adsorbed oxygen. 

Oxygen chemisorption methods were used to titrate surface vanadium sites in these studies. Raman, X-ray diffraction and isotopic labeling were done to support the dispersion results from chemisorption. A further conclusion was that as the % V increased for ethane oxidation reactions that the catalytic activity and selectivity was similar to that of unsupported vanadia. 

The dissociative adsorption of alkanes on Ir(l 1 0) surface was investigated in a series of studies performed by the Madix group [13, 32, 33]. A study performed by Hamza et al. [32] probed the dynamics of the dissociative chemisorption of methane, ethane, propane, and n-butane on the Ir(l 1 0)-(l x 2) surface. These investigations were complemented by a later study of propane dissociation on the Ir(l 1 0)-(l x 2) surface by Soulen and Madix [13]. Shown in Figs 6 and 7 are plots of S0 vs. E obtained for propane at various surface temperatures [32] and a plot of experimental and theoretical values of S0 for propane (at an incident translational energy of 50kcal/mol) on Ir(l 1 0)-(l x 2) as a function of surface temperature [13]. 

---