Mechanism heterogeneous catalysis

One of the main problems when writing a textbook is to limit its content. We tried hard to keep the volume within the scope of one advanced course of roughly 15 weeks, one day per week. Unfortunately, this means that certain topics had to be cut short or even left out completely. Statistical mechanics, heterogeneous catalysis, and polymers at surfaces are issues which could have been expanded. 

The microscopic understanding of tire chemical reactivity of surfaces is of fundamental interest in chemical physics and important for heterogeneous catalysis. Cluster science provides a new approach for tire study of tire microscopic mechanisms of surface chemical reactivity [48]. Surfaces of small clusters possess a very rich variation of chemisoriDtion sites and are ideal models for bulk surfaces. Chemical reactivity of many transition-metal clusters has been investigated [49]. Transition-metal clusters are produced using laser vaporization, and tire chemical reactivity studies are carried out typically in a flow tube reactor in which tire clusters interact witli a reactant gas at a given temperature and pressure for a fixed period of time. Reaction products are measured at various pressures or temperatures and reaction rates are derived. It has been found tliat tire reactivity of small transition-metal clusters witli simple molecules such as H2 and NH can vary dramatically witli cluster size and stmcture [48, 49, M and 52]. 

FIGURE 6 1 A mechanism for heterogeneous catalysis in the hydrogenation of alkenes... 

The proposed mechanism by which chlorinated dioxins and furans form has shifted from one of incomplete destmction of the waste to one of low temperature, downstream formation on fly ash particles (33). Two mechanisms are proposed, a de novo synthesis, in which PCDD and PCDF are formed from organic carbon sources and Cl in the presence of metal catalysts, and a more direct synthesis from chlorinated organic precursors, again involving heterogeneous catalysis. Bench-scale tests suggest that the optimum temperature for PCDD and PCDF formation in the presence of fly ash is roughly 300°C. 

Since the revised Biginelli mechanism was reported in 1997, numerous papers have appeared addressing improvements and variations of this reaction. The improvements include Lewis acid catalysis, protic acid catalysis, non-catalytic conditions, and heterogeneous catalysis. In addition, microwave irradiation (MWI) has been exploited to increase the reaction rates and yields. 

The study of catalytic polymerization of olefins performed up to the present time is certain to hold a particular influence over the progress of the concepts of the coordination mechanism of heterogeneous catalysis. With such an approach the elementary acts of catalytic reaction are considered to proceed in the coordination sphere of one ion of the transition element and, to a first approximation, the collective features of solids are not taken into account. It is not surprising that polymerization by Ziegler-Natta catalysts is often considered together with the processes of homogeneous catalysis. 

All these steps can influence the overall reaction rate. The reactor models of Chapter 9 are used to predict the bulk, gas-phase concentrations of reactants and products at point (r, z) in the reactor. They directly model only Steps 1 and 9, and the effects of Steps 2 through 8 are lumped into the pseudohomoge-neous rate expression, a, b,. ..), where a,b,. .. are the bulk, gas-phase concentrations. The overall reaction mechanism is complex, and the rate expression is necessarily empirical. Heterogeneous catalysis remains an experimental science. The techniques of this chapter are useful to interpret experimental results. Their predictive value is limited. 

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. 

The Eley-Rideal mechanism for gas-solid heterogeneous catalysis envisions reaction between a molecule adsorbed on the solid surface and one that is still in the gas phase. Consider a reaction of the form... 

This equation gives (0) = 0, a maximum at =. /Km/K2, and (oo) = 0. The assumed mechanism involves a first-order surface reaction with inhibition of the reaction if a second substrate molecule is adsorbed. A similar functional form for (s) can be obtained by assuming a second-order, dual-site model. As in the case of gas-solid heterogeneous catalysis, it is not possible to verify reaction mechanisms simply by steady-state rate measurements. 

Theoretically, the problem has been attacked by various approaches and on different levels. Simple derivations are connected with the theory of extrathermodynamic relationships and consider a single and simple mechanism of interaction to be a sufficient condition (2, 120). Alternative simple derivations depend on a plurality of mechanisms (4, 121, 122) or a complex mechanism of so called cooperative processes (113), or a particular form of temperature dependence (123). Fundamental studies in the framework of statistical mechanics have been done by Riietschi (96), Ritchie and Sager (124), and Thorn (125). Theories of more limited range of application have been advanced for heterogeneous catalysis (4, 5, 46-48, 122) and for solution enthalpies and entropies (126). However, most theories are concerned with reactions in the condensed phase (6, 127) and assume the controlling factors to be solvent effects (13, 21, 56, 109, 116, 128-130), hydrogen bonding (131), steric (13, 116, 132) and electrostatic (37, 133) effects, and the tunnel effect (4,... 

The idea that /3 continuously shifts with the temperature employed and thus remains experimentally inaccessible would be plausible and could remove many theoretical problems. However, there are few reaction series where the reversal of reactivity has been observed directly. Unambiguous examples are known, particularly in heterogeneous catalysis (4, 5, 189), as in Figure 5, and also from solution kinetics, even when in restricted reaction series (187, 190). There is the principal difficulty that reactions in solution cannot be followed in a sufficiently broad range of temperature, of course. It also seems that near the isokinetic temperature, even the Arrhenius law is fulfilled less accurately, making the determination of difficult. Nevertheless, we probably have to accept that reversal of reactivity is a possible, even though rare, phenomenon. The mechanism of such reaction series may be more complex than anticipated and a straightforward discussion in terms of, say, substituent effects may not be admissible. 

A reason for using microkinetics in heterogeneous catalysis is to have comprehensive kinetics and a transparent reaction mechanism that wonld be useful for re or design or catalyst development. Furthermore, in the long run, the exparimental effort to develop a microkinetics scheme can be less than that for a Langmuir-Hinshelwood (LH) or powa--law scheme because of the more fundamental nature of the reaction kinetics parameters. 

Heterogeneous reactions are complicated because the reacting species must be transferred from one phase to another before the reaction can occur. Despite much research, chemists still have limited knowledge about the mechanisms of reactions that involve heterogeneous catalysts. However, it is known that heterogeneous catalysis generally proceeds in four steps, as illustrated in Figure 15-21 for the conversion of NO into N2 and O2. ... 

E---S + R E---P->E + P The enzyme is regenerated at the end of this sequence, making it available to bind another substrate molecule. Note that the steps in this enzyme-catalyzed biochemical mechanism are similar to the steps in chemical heterogeneous catalysis binding with bond weakening, reaction at the bound site, and release of products. 

Hinshelwood Kinetic mechanism of reactions in heterogeneous catalysis... 

The examples of the model studies presented show how the meshing of modern surface techniques with reaction kinetics can provide valuable Insights Into the mechanisms of surface reactions and serve as a useful complement to the more traditional techniques. Close correlations between these two areas holds great promise for a better understanding of the many subtleties of heterogeneous catalysis. 

Inspection of Fig. 15.3 reveals that while for jo 0.1 nAcm , the effectiveness factor is expected to be close to 1, for a faster reaction with Jo 1 p,A cm , it will drop to about 0.2. This is the case of internal diffusion limitation, well known in heterogeneous catalysis, when the reagent concentration at the outer surface of the catalyst grains is equal to its volume concentration, but drops sharply inside the pores of the catalyst. In this context, it should be pointed out that when the pore size is decreased below about 50 nm, the predominant mechanism of mass transport is Knudsen diffusion [Malek and Coppens, 2003], with the diffusion coefficient being less than the Pick diffusion coefficient and dependent on the porosity and pore stmcture. Moreover, the discrete distribution of the catalytic particles in the CL may also affect the measured current owing to overlap of diffusion zones around closely positioned particles [Antoine et ah, 1998]. 

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