Understanding catalysis

The large majority of chemical compounds underwent at least one catalytic step during synthesis. While it is common knowledge that catalysts enhance reaction rates by lowering the activation energy it is often obscure how catalysts achieve this. This tutorial review explains some fundamental princip...

Ausführliche Beschreibung

Gespeichert in:
Bibliographische Detailangaben
Veröffentlicht in:Chemical Society reviews Jg. 43; H. 24; S. 8226
1. Verfasser: Roduner, Emil
Format: Journal Article
Sprache:Englisch
Veröffentlicht: England 21.12.2014
ISSN:1460-4744, 1460-4744
Online-Zugang:Weitere Angaben
Tags: Tag hinzufügen
Keine Tags, Fügen Sie den ersten Tag hinzu!
Beschreibung
Zusammenfassung:The large majority of chemical compounds underwent at least one catalytic step during synthesis. While it is common knowledge that catalysts enhance reaction rates by lowering the activation energy it is often obscure how catalysts achieve this. This tutorial review explains some fundamental principles of catalysis and how the mechanisms are studied. The dissociation of formic acid into H2 and CO2 serves to demonstrate how a water molecule can open a new reaction path at lower energy, how immersion in liquid water can influence the charge distribution and energetics, and how catalysis at metal surfaces differs from that in the gas phase. The reversibility of catalytic reactions, the influence of an adsorption pre-equilibrium and the compensating effects of adsorption entropy and enthalpy on the Arrhenius parameters are discussed. It is shown that flexibility around the catalytic centre and residual substrate dynamics on the surface affect these parameters. Sabatier's principle of optimum substrate adsorption, shape selectivity in the pores of molecular sieves and the polarisation effect at the metal-support interface are explained. Finally, it is shown that the application of a bias voltage in electrochemistry offers an additional parameter to promote or inhibit a reaction.
Bibliographie:ObjectType-Article-1
SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1
ObjectType-Feature-2
content type line 23
ISSN:1460-4744
1460-4744
DOI:10.1039/c4cs00210e