If we had data on two group VIII metals on the same support (under H2 pressure in water) and one of those group VIII metals was on both a conducting support, e.g., carbon, and an insulating support, e.g., silica, (also under H2 pressure in water), would we have enough information to rationalize the differences between the different metals and different supports? Would I have enough information to design the right experiments to understand the differences that I cannot be rationalized? I believe the answer to this question should be “yes” on all counts. As it happens, I know three papers that pretty much give me all that data and they are in the public domain. Their titles don’t immediately appear to exhibit a lot of overlap. Two papers discuss the hydrogenation of phenol. A third paper also investigated metal catalyzed hydrogenation but of ethene, not phenol. Phenol makes sense because you will then recall that phenol is a product of lignin decomposition (a possible bio fuel and energy source), much studied as a molecular probe for low temperature acid catalysis in water. A metal catalytic function is required to hydrogenate the ring and the acid catalytic function is needed to dehydrate the cyclohexanol product. The experimental part of one paper pertains to Pt on silicalite (a crystalline silica insulating support) and the second to Pt on carbon (but discusses ethene hydrogenation) so we have two metals, one on an insulating support and the other on a conducting support. The third paper pertains to Ru on carbon so we now have two metals on the same kind of conducting support. I assert that we are now in possession of all the data needed to give an answer to the title question, and to the two questions that open the this abstract.

What is needed to understand hydronium ion acidity on a supported group VIII metal under a H2 pressure in the aqueous phase

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