Selective heterogeneous catalysts features

The potential importance of homogeneous catalytic reactions in synthesis gas transformations (i.e., hydrogenation of carbon monoxide) has been widely recognized in recent years. In the first place, such systems could provide structural and mechanistic models for the currently more important, but more difficult to study, heterogeneous catalysts. Secondly, product selectivity is generally more readily achievable with homogeneous catalysts, and this would be an obviously desirable feature in an efficient process converting synthesis gas to useful chemicals and fuels. 

Various works has pointed out the role of the nanostructure of the catalysts in their design.18-26 There is a general agreement that the nanostructure of the oxide particles is a key to control the reactivity and selectivity. Several papers have discussed the features and properties of nanostructured catalysts and oxides,27-41 but often the concept of nanostructure is not clearly defined. A heterogeneous catalyst should be optimized on a multiscale level, e.g. from the molecular level to the nano, micro- and meso-scale level.42 Therefore, not only the active site itself (molecular level) is relevant, but also the environment around the active site which orients or assist the coordination of the reactants, may induce sterical constrains on the transition state, and affect the short-range transport effects (nano-scale level).42 The catalytic surface process is in series with the transport of the reactants and the back-diffusion of the products which should be concerted with the catalytic transformation. Heat... 

For the production of chemicals, food additives and pharmaceutical products, homogeneous catalysis offers some attractive features such as a high selectivity and activity, e.g. in asymmetric synthesis. However, since most homogeneous catalysts are relatively expensive, their current industrial application is limited [3]. On the other hand, heterogeneous catalysts can easily be separated from the products and can be recycled efficiently. Membrane separations with emphasis on nanofil-tration and ultrafiltration will allow for a similar recyclability of homogeneous catalysts, which is important both from an environmental as well as a commercial... 

A unique titanium(IV)-silica catalyst prepared by impregnating silica with TiCLt or organotitanium compounds exhibits excellent properties with selectivities comparable to the best homogeneous molybdenum catalysts.285 The new zeolite-like catalyst titanium silicalite (TS-1) featuring isomorphous substitution of Si(IV) with Ti(IV) is a very efficient heterogeneous catalyst for selective oxidations with H2C>2.184,185 It exhibits remarkable activities and selectivities in epoxidation of simple olefins.188,304-306 Propylene, for instance, was epoxidized304 with 97% selectivity at 90% conversion at 40°C. Shape-selective epoxidation of 1- and 2-hexenes was observed with this system that failed to catalyze the transformation of cyclohexene.306 Surface peroxotitanate 13 is suggested to be the active spe-... 

Heterogeneous copper catalysts prepared with the chemisorption-hydrolysis technique are effective systems for hydrogen transfer reactions, namely carbonyl reduction, alcohol dehydrogenation and racemization, and allylic alcohol isomerization. Practical concerns argue for the use of these catalysts for synthetic purposes because of their remarkable performance in terms of selectivity and productivity, which are basic features for the application of heterogeneous catalysts to fine chemicals synthesis. Moreover, in all these reactions the use of these materials allows a simple, safe, and clean protocol. 

Since the last review by Venuto in 1968,[1] there has been a continuous interest in the application of microporous and mesoporous materials as catalysts in the synthesis of bulk and fine chemicals.[211 Indeed, their acidic and basic properties can be combined with their structural properties in order to take advantage of their adsorption and shape selectivity properties, the latter being an advantageous feature of zeolites compared with other heterogeneous catalysts. Another important aspect... 

The recent discovery of mesoporous silicas, exhibiting channels with diameter in the range 15 to 100 A, resulted in the availability of a support with very attractive features [9,10]. Among such materials, the MCM-41, developed by the Mobil Research Laboratories in 1992 [9], is the most studied one. MCM-41 has very high specific surface area, typically around 1000 m g, and a regular porous structure suitable for shape selectivity effects, which are useful for preparing new heterogeneous catalysts for the synthesis of fine chemicals. Thus, many efforts have been made to prepare active supported catalysts by the insertion of redox and acid-base centers [11 and references therein]. 

Shape selectivity reflects the relationship between the structure and the mode of action of a zeolite. This shape selectivity is an advantageous feature of zeolites compared with other heterogeneous catalysts. 

Ion-exchange resins, especially the cation-exchange resins such as Dowex, Amberlyst series are manufactured mairJy by sulfonation of ethylbenzene first, followed by a cross-link with divinylbenzene (Liu Tan, 2001 Alexandratos, 2008 Tesser et al., 2010). Because of their selective adsorption of reactants, surface acid site features, and swelling nature, these resins not only catalyze the esterification reaction but also affect the equilibrium conversion. They also show excellent performance such as reusable, mechanical separation, continuous operation as a heterogeneous catalyst in esterification (Yang et al., 2007 JagadeeshBabu et al, 2011 Ju et al, 2011 Toor et al., 2011). 

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