Lecture # 1

Principles of Heterogeneous Catalysis

CHE633A, IIT Kanpur
 Instructor: Goutam Deo, FB455, e-mail: goutam@,
course alias: che633a@
 Teaching Assistants: Jitendra Prabhakar, AS Russel and
Rajvikram Singh

Bulk phase
3 l , 4l,
`
Solid material 5l

Catalytic 7 6 pore 6l
Reactor 1 2 2l

3, 4,
A spherical catalyst 5
A porous catalyst showing a single
particle with pores
hypothetical pore
Conducting the course
 Classes: Wednesday and Friday at 09:00 to 10:15
 Lectures: L12
 Quizzes: Will be announced
 Discussion hour: At a mutually acceptable time
 Homework and projects will be submitted on mooKIT
Course content
 Introduction and Historical Developments
 Definitions and Concepts
 Catalyst Preparation and Characterization
 Adsorption and Potential Energy Diagrams
 Kinetics and mechanisms
 Pore Structure and Surface Area
 Reaction and Diffusion in Catalysts (Large-scale reactors)
 Some Catalysts often used
o Supported Metal Catalysts
o Supported Metal-oxide Catalysts
 Project presentations (?)
Reactions and Catalytic reactions

Reaction rate is the rate at which the species looses their identity
 catalytic

Conversion
Non-catalytic

Time
Reaction rates revisited
The rate is
 a function of temp, press, conc and type of catalyst (if used)
 an algebraic equation, e.g., , this is called the rate law
o Other forms of the equation are possible
 not a differential equation, e.g., rate is not
used to calculate the rate for certain conditions
𝒄𝒂𝒕𝒂𝒍𝒚𝒔𝒕
 Heterogeneous reactions,
o More than 1-phase, reaction often occurs at the interface,
.
For gas-solid catalyzed reactions the rate is
often given in terms of partial pressures
 For example,

 The rate of toluene disappearance is given by

𝒎𝒐𝒍𝒆𝒔 𝒐𝒇 𝒕𝒐𝒍𝒖𝒆𝒏𝒆
 Where, is the rate constant having units of and
(𝒌𝒈 𝒄𝒂𝒕).(𝒔).(𝒌𝑷𝒂)𝟐

𝟏
 and are equilibrium (adsorption) constants, with units of
A historical perspective on catalysis


Heterogeneous Catalysis, Fundamentals and Applications

JRH Ross
Catalytic oxidation – an important early development of
heterogeneous catalyst
In 1817 at the Royal Institution of London, Davy and Faraday showed
that air and goal gas (mixture of CO and H2) can combine without a
flame using a heated platinum wire
 Also with palladium but not with gold, silver, copper, iron and zinc
 Importance of platinum surface area shown by Edmond Davy for room
temperature oxidation of alcohol in 1820 by using finely divided metal
 Dobrenierused finely divided platinum (spongy material) to combine
hydrogen and oxygen at room temperature in 1823
 Dulong and Thenard showed this reaction to occur on palladium and
iridium at close to room temperature and on cobalt, nickel, rhodium,
silver and gold at slightly elevated temperatures
Field of catalysis is multidimensional and multidisciplinary
 requires an integrated approach based on different established
practices of engineering and science

 “Catalysis” first used by Berzelius in 1800’s. He observed that

several reactions were aided by the presence of certain foreign
substances “Catalytic Force” involved

 Several discoveries and patents were made involving catalysis in the

1800s & early 1900s

 The progress was limited in scientific understanding and the

discoveries were made by chance → “Black box” technology
Early 1900’s – several theories and postulates were made
Despite this:
• Sabatier → chemical intermediates are formed
• Langmuir → importance of surfaces and reactions happen on them
• Development of relationship between various rates &pressures
Langmuir–Hinshelhwood Eley–Rideal
• Taylor → active sites/centers on catalytic surfaces
Theories:
• Balandin - interpretation of catalytic activity in terms of geometric
arrangement of atoms
• Beck - relationship between lattice spacing and activity
• Schwab - electronic concentration in metal alloys was related to
catalytic activity