The N2O Decomposition Reaction Self-Organization in Zeolite Catalysis

3 The N2O Decomposition Reaction Self-Organization in Zeolite Catalysis 

The energies for the N2O decomposition reaction on this iron-dimer cluster are shown in Fig. 4.27. 

The N2O decomposition reaction is especially interesting because under particular conditions the reaction can be induced to oscillate (see Fig. 4.28l l). If non-isothermal effects can be excluded, this implies the presence of an auto-catalytic elementary reaction step in the overall catalytic reaction cycle (see Chapter 8). In this case, the auto-catalysis results from N2O decomposition catalyzed by both mono-center and bi-center iron complexes. 

There is ample experimental evidence for the presence of partial hydroxylated monomer-and dimer-iron complexes in zeolites that decompose N2O. At high temperatures N2O easily decomposes on a single-center Fe +(OH) cationic complex to form N2 and the Fe +=0 complex 

The formation of O2 by a consecutive reaction of this oxidized center with N2O requires a high activation energy (see Fig. 4.25a). 

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