Heterogeneous catalysis, surface-catalyzed

In heterogeneous catalysis, solids catalyze reactions of molecules in gas or solution. As solids - unless they are porous - are commonly impenetrable, catalytic reactions occur at the surface. To use the often expensive materials (e.g. platinum) in an economical way, catalysts are usually nanometer-sized particles, supported on an inert, porous structure (see Fig. 1.4). Heterogeneous catalysts are the workhorses of the chemical and petrochemical industry and we will discuss many applications of heterogeneous catalysis throughout this book. 

Steps 1 through 9 constitute a model for heterogeneous catalysis in a fixed-bed reactor. There are many variations, particularly for Steps 4 through 6. For example, the Eley-Rideal mechanism described in Problem 10.4 envisions an adsorbed molecule reacting directly with a molecule in the gas phase. Other models contemplate a mixture of surface sites that can have different catalytic activity. For example, the platinum and the alumina used for hydrocarbon reforming may catalyze different reactions. Alternative models lead to rate expressions that differ in the details, but the functional forms for the rate expressions are usually similar. 

In principle, sites a, IT, and c need not be association sites as depicted by Ogston but could be steric sites that form obstructions such that the adsorbed molecule is chirally directed. Only one active site is actually required providing the remaining two sites (protuberances or cavities) are different from each other and from the active site that catalyzes the reaction. They could be identical providing they are not symmetrically oriented with respect to the active site (not an isosceles triangle). These are the basic concepts for a chiral environment on a surface and they lead to the three basic methods for creating chiral surfaces in heterogeneous catalysis. 

Contact with a mineral surface can in many cases allow a redox reaction to proceed at a rate considerably greater than attainable within an aqueous solution itself. The catalyzing mineral sorbs the electron donating and accepting species, then, within its structure or along its surface, conducts electrons from one to the other. Where electron transfer by this pathway proceeds more rapidly than via a direct transfer in solution between colliding molecules, the redox reaction proceeds preferentially by heterogeneous catalysis. 

The basic concept is the intuition that, whether homogeneous or heterogeneous, catalysis is primarily a process controlled by a molecular phenomenon since it implies the catalyzed transformation of molecules into other molecules. It follows that on the surface of metals or metal oxides, sulfides, carbides, nitrides usually involved as heterogeneous catalysts, the relevant surface species and the mechanism of their mutual reactions must be of molecular character, as occurs in homogeneous or enzymatic catalysis. 

Measurement of heat of adsorption by means of microcalorimetry has been used extensively in heterogeneous catalysis to gain more insight into the strength of gas-surface interactions and the catalytic properties of solid surfaces [61-65]. Microcalorimetry coupled with volumetry is undoubtedly the most reliable method, for two main reasons (i) the expected physical quantities (the heat evolved and the amount of adsorbed substance) are directly measured (ii) no hypotheses on the actual equilibrium of the system are needed. Moreover, besides the provided heat effects, adsorption microcalorimetry can contribute in the study of all phenomena, which can be involved in one catalyzed process (activation/deactivation of the catalyst, coke production, pore blocking, sintering, and adsorption of poisons in the feed gases) [66]. 

This and similar instruments (3,4) that allow one to study reaction rates and product distributions on small-area crystal and catalyst surfaces have been used in our studies of the mechanism of heterogeneous catalysis and the nature of active sites. These studies, which concentrated primarily on hydrocarbon reaction as catalyzed by platinum crystal surfaces, will be reviewed in the next section. 

In this section, these influences will be described. Besides the acidic properties, the absorption properties of solid heteropolyacids for polar molecules are often critical in determining the catalytic function in pseudoliquid phase behavior. This is a new concept in heterogeneous catalysis by inorganic materials and is described separately in Section VI. With this behavior, reactions catalyzed by solid heteropoly compounds can be classified into three types surface type, bulk type I, and bulk type II (Sections VII and IX). Softness of the heteropolyanion is important for high catalytic activity, although the concept has not yet been sufficiently clarified. 

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