Whether a solid catalyst is a metal, a metal oxide, or a combination of the two its success is judged by its activity, selectivity and stability under reaction conditions. Advances in the understanding and achievement of these properties requires controlled materials synthesis and pretreatment in combination with tools that provide information on structure and composition at the atomic scale. In this lecture I will highlight two vignettes on this theme. The first demonstrates how a Pd/Al2O3 catalyst can be transformed from a very bad alkane dehydrogenation catalyst, with poor activity, selectivity and stability to a catalyst with outstanding properties simply by changing the catalyst structure. The second illustrates the value and insight provided by a proper counting of active sites in the MoOx/SiO2 catalyst for olefin metathesis.

Making, counting, and preserving catalytic active sites

Macromolecular Chemistry: The Second Century

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ACS Spring 2020 National Meeting & Expo

The official archive and repository for all ACS Meetings & Expositions abstracts and select posters or presentations.