Poison interaction between active components

The future work on the poisoning of automotive catalysts will have to deal, primarily, with the specific interaction of particular poisons with the active components. The present trend toward more complex catalytic systems, containing several active components, will make the task still more difficult. One could foresee the use of modem, more sophisticated methods of surface analysis for studying the interactions between poison and active components. 

Because poisoning is due to the interaction between a poison and the active component in a catalyst, this interaction may be strong or weak. According to the strength or weakness of this interaction, poisoning may be divided into two kinds. One is that the interaction is so weak that the poison on the active site can be... 

The modern methanol synthesis catalyst consists of copper, zinc oxide, and alumina. Copper metal is seen as the catalytically active phase, and ZnO as the promoter. It is well known that the interaction between the two components is essential for achieving a high activity, but the nature of the promoting effect is still a matter of debate. Loss of activity is caused by sintering of the Cu crystallites, and, if the feed gas contains impurities such as chlorine and sulfur, by poisoning. 

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