סמינר בכימיה אורגנית: Structure Sensitivity in Catalysis

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​Abstract:

Some fundamental concepts of catalysis are as of yet not fully explained, but are of paramount importance for the development of improved catalysts for chemical industries, and environmental remediation. An example is the concept of structure sensitive, and structure insensitive reactions, where surface-normalized activity changes, or does not change, with catalyst metal nanoparticle size, respectively. I’ve explored these concepts over the last few years, attempting to understand the fundamental physical concepts behind its working, and its relation to surface reconstruction on a range of well-defined silica-supported Ni metal nanoparticles (in the range of 1-6 nm) for a structure sensitive (i.e., CO2 hydrogenation) [1, 2, 3] and for a structure insensitive (i.e., ethene hydrogenation) [4] reaction. Using state-of-the-art techniques, inter alia in-situ high-resolution STEM, and quick-X-ray absorption spectroscopy with sub-second time resolution, we compare the fundamental concepts behind structure sensitivity and insensitivity and explain them on a fundamental level, unveiling some longstanding misconceptions.

[1] Vogt, C.; Monai, M.; Kramer, G. J.; Weckhuysen, B. M.; Nature Catalysis, 2019, 2, 188-197.

[2] Vogt, C.; Groeneveld, E.; Kamsma, G.; Nachtegaal, M.; Lu, L.; Kiely, C.J.; Berben, P.H.; Meirer, F.; Weckhuysen, B.M.; Nature Catalysis, 2018, 1, 127–134.

[3] Vogt, C., Monai, M., Sterk, E. B., Palle, J., Zijlstra, Groeneveld, E. Berben, P. H., Boereboom, J., Hensen, E. J. M., Meirer, F., Filot, I. A. W., Weckhuysen, B. M., Nature Communications, 2019, 10, 5330.

[3] Vogt, C.; Groeneveld, E.; Monai, M.; Ferri, D.; van Santen, R. A.; Nachtegaal, M.; Unocic, R. R.; Frenkel, A. I.; Meirer, F.; Weckhuysen, B. M.; manuscript under review.