Surface autocatalytic effects

Tenne R, Wold A (1985) Passivation of recombination centers in n-WSe2 yields high efficiency (>14%) photoelectrochemical cell. Appl Phys Lett 47 707-709 Chaparro AM, Salvador P, Peter LM (1995) The role of surface defects in the photooxidation of iodide at n-MoSe2 evidence for a local autocatalytic effect. J Phys Chem 99 6677-6683... 

Thus, in this section we will present the various reactive sites that can be found on the surface of the more common substrates, i.e. the surface reactive functionahties, the surface defects and, in addition, the anchoring sites on the nanoparticles which can induce autocatalytic effects. Selected examples will illustrate the major role played by surface chemistry. 

A coating bearing one enzyme (papain) is produced on the surface of a glass pH electrode by the method previously introduced (co-crosslinking). The papain reaction decreases the pH, and the pH-activity variation gives an autocatalytic effect for pH values greater than the optimum under zero-order kinetics for the substrate (benzoyl arginine ethyl ester) the pH inside the membrane is studied as a function of the pH in the bulk solution in which the electrode is immersed. A hysteresis effect is observed and the enzyme reaction rate depends not only on the metabolite concentrations, but also on the history of the system. 

The facts are readily explained on the theory that decomposition of the ammonium amalgam occurs very slowly as an homogeneous reaction at temperatures below zero and that a rapid, heterogeneous reaction takes place at the surface of little droplets of liquid ammonia which are dispersed throughout the mercury. The surface tension of the mercury is sufficient to cause liquefaction of the first ammonia which is liberated. The autocatalytic effect occurs when the reaction has had time to build up these droplets of liquid ammonia. 

The reaction is autocatalytic, resembling in this respect the situation already encountered with uncoated quartz or glass vessels. However, in contrast with the results of Lewis and von Elbe [23] for a quartz vessel, Baldwin and Mayor [45] found little or no effect of addition of up to 22 torr added water on either the induction period or the maximum rate, irrespective of whether the water was added a short time before, or together with, the reactants themselves. They concluded that the autocatalytic effect cannot be due to poisoning (by absorption of water vapour produced in the reaction) of the ability of the surface to destroy chain centres, as had previously been suggested. 

The empirical rate law in Eq. 23 holds only for the initial rates. Tamura et al. (1976) observed an autocatalytic effect of the ferric precipitates produced in the reaction. Sung and Morgan (1980) identified y-FeOOH as the primary oxidation product at neutral pH and confirmed its autocatalytic effect. Adsorbed Fe(II) seems to compete in an additional parallel reaction with the dissolved ferrous species. Fast surface reaction rates resulted from a fit of the kinetic data. Examples of these constants are included in Fig. la for comparison. They represent only estimates of an order of magnitude because Tamura et al. (1976) did not determine the surface concentration of Fe(II). However, Figure 2 shows qualitatively that the ferrous ion is adsorbed specifically to mineral surfaces. 

How relevant are these phenomena First, many oscillating reactions exist and play an important role in living matter. Biochemical oscillations and also the inorganic oscillatory Belousov-Zhabotinsky system are very complex reaction networks. Oscillating surface reactions though are much simpler and so offer convenient model systems to investigate the realm of non-equilibrium reactions on a fundamental level. Secondly, as mentioned above, the conditions under which nonlinear effects such as those caused by autocatalytic steps lead to uncontrollable situations, which should be avoided in practice. Hence, some knowledge about the subject is desired. Finally, the application of forced oscillations in some reactions may lead to better performance in favorable situations for example, when a catalytic system alternates between conditions where the catalyst deactivates due to carbon deposition and conditions where this deposit is reacted away. 

The point is also made [134] that the very high surface areas and the richly interconnected three-dimensional networks of these micron-sized spaces, coupled with periods of desiccation, could together have produced microenvironments rich in cat-alytically produced complex chemicals and possibly membrane-endosed vesides of bacterial size. These processes would provide the proximate concatenation of lipid vesicular precursors with the complex chemicals that would ultimately produce the autocatalytic and self-replicating chiral systems. A 2.5 km2 granite reef is estimated to contain possibly 1018 catalytic microreactors, open by diffusion to the dynamic reservoir of organic molecules. .. but protected from the dispersive effects of flow and convection [134] as well as protected from the high flux of ultraviolet radiation impinging on the early Earth. [123,137]... 

Micellar catalysis is a broad field (Fendler and Fendler, 1975 Rathman, 1996 Rispens and Engberts, 2001), and caution is needed when using this term. In fact, whereas the broad term catalysis is justihed when referring to an increase of the velocity of reachon, this does not always mean that the velocity constant is increased (namely that there is a decrease of the specific activation energy). Rather, the velocity effect can be due to a concentration effect operated by the surface of the micelles. This is also the case for the autocatalytic self-reproduction of micelles discussed in the previous chapter, where the lipophilic precursor of the surfactant is concentrated on the hydrophobic surface of the fatty acid micelles (Bachmann et al., 1992), a feature that has given rise to some controversy (Mavelli and Luisi, 1996 Buhse etal, 1991 1998 Mavelli, 2004). 

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