Model Systems in Catalysis

This book is an excellent compilation of cutting-edge research in heterogeneous catalysis and related disciplines – surface science, organometallic catalysis, and enzymatic catalysis. In 23 chapters by noted experts, the volume demonstrates varied approaches using model systems and their successes in understanding aspects of heterogeneous catalysis, both metal- and metal oxide-based catalysis in extended single crystal and nanostructured catalytic materials. To truly appreciate the astounding advances of modern heterogeneous catalysis, let us first consider the subject from a historical perspective. Heterogeneous catalysis had its beginnings in England and France with the work of scientists such as Humphrey Davy (1778–1829), Michael Faraday (1791–1867), and Paul Sabatier (1854–1941). Sabatier postulated that surface compounds, si- lar to those familiar in bulk to chemists, were the intermediate species leading to catalytic products. Sabatier proposed, for example, that NiH moieties on a Ni sur- 2 face were able to hydrogenate ethylene, whereas NiH was not. In the USA, Irving Langmuir concluded just the opposite, namely, that chemisorbed surface species are chemically bound to surfaces and are unlike known molecules. These chemisorbed species were the active participants in catalysis. The equilibrium between gas-phase molecules and adsorbed chemisorbed species (yielding an adsorption isotherm) produced a monolayer by simple site-filling kinetics.