- Email: [email protected]
“Catalyst”
N3 grammes
spanning
different
disci-
plines such as: Molecular mechanisms relevant to hydrocarbon chemistry and Cl chemistry which are in fundamental aspects connected with current developments in the petroleum, petrochemical and exploration of industries; syngas properties and new preparation and synthesis methods for catalytic materials which hold considerable promise for improved catalytic selectivity, activity and stability; fundamental understanding of the relationship of surface chemistry and the kinetics of elementary steps for catalysis on structurally well-defined and well-characterized catalysts; relationship between heteroand homogeneous catalysis and impacts of their interaction to new catalytic processes. The following programmes are currently being carried out in NLFRC. (a)
Molecular catalysis: Interaction of Cl, 0, CO on FeNi alloys; modelling of supported catalysts; kinetics of desorption, surface organometallic moieties on metal and metal oxide surfaces; influence of surface structure on activity of Ag catalyst; heterogenization of osmium organometallic clusters, characterization of supported platinum and rhodium metal clusters and molybdenum cobalt (iron, nickel) complexes in hydrodesulfurization
of
hydrocarbon dehydrogenated species on metals; property and characteristics of carbonaceous layers on PtSn catalyst; characterization of the active phase in hydrodesulfurization catalysts; metal -support interaction and additive effects and reaction mechanism in supported Ru FischerTropsch catalysts; mixed oxide catalyst for oxidative coupling of methane; characterization of structure and activity of pillared montmorillonite; metal substituted cross-linked montmorillonite catalysts and template effect and isomorphous replacement in ZEMS synthesis. NLFRc is also planning some long term projects such as the molecular basis for catalyst design which will draw graduates and scientists from different interdisciplinary fields, including surface science, organometallic chemistry, biochemistry and chemical dynamics. For a multidisciplinary science like catalysis, a comprehensive programme in an individual sub-field is not expected to be attractive. To stimulate the intimate partnership and interaction of science and technology with society, NLFRC is also able to provide direct and lasting assistance to chemical industrial companies in the form of special contract or formal agreement on quality control methods or standardization tests for catalysts manufacturing. XU YIDE
(b) Industrial catalysis: Interaction in mixed metal oxides systems; activation of adsorbed alkenes on supported oxides; active phase and interaction effect in multimetal oxide catalysts; metastable oxygen species on metal-semiconductor catalysts; formation and conversion
“Catalysr’ We have ‘Journal of Catalysis”, “Catalysis Letters”, “Kinetics and Cata-
applied catalysis - Volume 52 No.l-2 - 17 July 1989
N4 lysis”, “Catalyst World” and so on, not to forget ‘Applied Catalysis”, but until now no one has given a journal the simple title “Catalyst (at least, I think not). The gap has now been filled with a new journal, a copy of which arrived unexpectedly at my home a few days ago. Perhaps I should say new-ish journal as the copy I received, for Spring 1989, is Volume 2, No. 2. The cover of this issue has a stylized, very green rural scene, with a man in a black suit vaulting inexpertly over a five-bar gate. Symbolic of overcoming the activation energy to surface diffusion, I wondered. But no, to my disappointment. The title is almost the only link with catalysis to be found in the magazine. It is rather like the glossy magazines given away by airlines, full of articles on travel, sport and interior decorating, which are just sufficiently interesting to read when strapped into an airliner seat but not otherwise. “Catalyst”, it turns out, is published on behalf of AustinRover, the British car manufacturing group. There is one news item related to the title: I’...the Rover Sterling has become the first British car to be offered with an optional catalytic exhaust system in the U.K.“, which is followed by a brief and accurate description of the catalytic system. We applaud this, on environmental grounds, on providing more work for our fellow professionals and on accuracy in popular science reporting. Nevertheless the choice of title for the magazine remains mysterious. Is “Catalysr’ about to become a fashionable term, I wondered? Prompted by Bob Gillard, I looked up Fowler’s Modern English Usage (2nd Ed. 1965) and under “Vogue Words” I found “Every now and then a word emerges from obscurity, or even from nothingness or a merely
potential and not actual existence, into sudden popularity It is often, but not necessarily, one that by no means explains itself to the average man, who has to find out its meaning as best he can....” and under the heading “Words owing their vogue to the joy of showing that one has acquired them” appears “catalyst”. Twenty four years on it is too late to complain. MS. SPENCER
The External Surfaces of Zeolites
Zeolites are some of the best characterized catalysts we have: the form and nature of the internal surface produced by the crystal structure is known with great accuracy. In some instances there is evidence that the external surface may also play a part in catalysis, especially when very small zeollte crystals are used, but the nature of the external surface of zeolite crystals remains poorly characterized. Is it a neatly-severed plane of the bulk structure, does it have regular hills and hdlows corresponding to the underlying structure but caused by lattice relaxation or is it a completely different surface compound? Some steps on the way have appeared in a recent paper (G. l? Handreck and T D. Smith, J. Chem.
Sot.,
Faraday
Trans.
1, 85
(1989) 645) in which the ion-exchange properties of the external surface of ZSM-5 samples have been determined. A range of aluminium and sodium contents were used and the authors found that 15 to 25% of the total exchange capacity was on the external surface.
applied catalysis - Volume 52 No.1-2 - 17 July 1989
spanning
different
disci-
plines such as: Molecular mechanisms relevant to hydrocarbon chemistry and Cl chemistry which are in fundamental aspects connected with current developments in the petroleum, petrochemical and exploration of industries; syngas properties and new preparation and synthesis methods for catalytic materials which hold considerable promise for improved catalytic selectivity, activity and stability; fundamental understanding of the relationship of surface chemistry and the kinetics of elementary steps for catalysis on structurally well-defined and well-characterized catalysts; relationship between heteroand homogeneous catalysis and impacts of their interaction to new catalytic processes. The following programmes are currently being carried out in NLFRC. (a)
Molecular catalysis: Interaction of Cl, 0, CO on FeNi alloys; modelling of supported catalysts; kinetics of desorption, surface organometallic moieties on metal and metal oxide surfaces; influence of surface structure on activity of Ag catalyst; heterogenization of osmium organometallic clusters, characterization of supported platinum and rhodium metal clusters and molybdenum cobalt (iron, nickel) complexes in hydrodesulfurization
of
hydrocarbon dehydrogenated species on metals; property and characteristics of carbonaceous layers on PtSn catalyst; characterization of the active phase in hydrodesulfurization catalysts; metal -support interaction and additive effects and reaction mechanism in supported Ru FischerTropsch catalysts; mixed oxide catalyst for oxidative coupling of methane; characterization of structure and activity of pillared montmorillonite; metal substituted cross-linked montmorillonite catalysts and template effect and isomorphous replacement in ZEMS synthesis. NLFRc is also planning some long term projects such as the molecular basis for catalyst design which will draw graduates and scientists from different interdisciplinary fields, including surface science, organometallic chemistry, biochemistry and chemical dynamics. For a multidisciplinary science like catalysis, a comprehensive programme in an individual sub-field is not expected to be attractive. To stimulate the intimate partnership and interaction of science and technology with society, NLFRC is also able to provide direct and lasting assistance to chemical industrial companies in the form of special contract or formal agreement on quality control methods or standardization tests for catalysts manufacturing. XU YIDE
(b) Industrial catalysis: Interaction in mixed metal oxides systems; activation of adsorbed alkenes on supported oxides; active phase and interaction effect in multimetal oxide catalysts; metastable oxygen species on metal-semiconductor catalysts; formation and conversion
“Catalysr’ We have ‘Journal of Catalysis”, “Catalysis Letters”, “Kinetics and Cata-
applied catalysis - Volume 52 No.l-2 - 17 July 1989
N4 lysis”, “Catalyst World” and so on, not to forget ‘Applied Catalysis”, but until now no one has given a journal the simple title “Catalyst (at least, I think not). The gap has now been filled with a new journal, a copy of which arrived unexpectedly at my home a few days ago. Perhaps I should say new-ish journal as the copy I received, for Spring 1989, is Volume 2, No. 2. The cover of this issue has a stylized, very green rural scene, with a man in a black suit vaulting inexpertly over a five-bar gate. Symbolic of overcoming the activation energy to surface diffusion, I wondered. But no, to my disappointment. The title is almost the only link with catalysis to be found in the magazine. It is rather like the glossy magazines given away by airlines, full of articles on travel, sport and interior decorating, which are just sufficiently interesting to read when strapped into an airliner seat but not otherwise. “Catalyst”, it turns out, is published on behalf of AustinRover, the British car manufacturing group. There is one news item related to the title: I’...the Rover Sterling has become the first British car to be offered with an optional catalytic exhaust system in the U.K.“, which is followed by a brief and accurate description of the catalytic system. We applaud this, on environmental grounds, on providing more work for our fellow professionals and on accuracy in popular science reporting. Nevertheless the choice of title for the magazine remains mysterious. Is “Catalysr’ about to become a fashionable term, I wondered? Prompted by Bob Gillard, I looked up Fowler’s Modern English Usage (2nd Ed. 1965) and under “Vogue Words” I found “Every now and then a word emerges from obscurity, or even from nothingness or a merely
potential and not actual existence, into sudden popularity It is often, but not necessarily, one that by no means explains itself to the average man, who has to find out its meaning as best he can....” and under the heading “Words owing their vogue to the joy of showing that one has acquired them” appears “catalyst”. Twenty four years on it is too late to complain. MS. SPENCER
The External Surfaces of Zeolites
Zeolites are some of the best characterized catalysts we have: the form and nature of the internal surface produced by the crystal structure is known with great accuracy. In some instances there is evidence that the external surface may also play a part in catalysis, especially when very small zeollte crystals are used, but the nature of the external surface of zeolite crystals remains poorly characterized. Is it a neatly-severed plane of the bulk structure, does it have regular hills and hdlows corresponding to the underlying structure but caused by lattice relaxation or is it a completely different surface compound? Some steps on the way have appeared in a recent paper (G. l? Handreck and T D. Smith, J. Chem.
Sot.,
Faraday
Trans.
1, 85
(1989) 645) in which the ion-exchange properties of the external surface of ZSM-5 samples have been determined. A range of aluminium and sodium contents were used and the authors found that 15 to 25% of the total exchange capacity was on the external surface.
applied catalysis - Volume 52 No.1-2 - 17 July 1989