Lecture

Catalyst Synthesis I: Fundamentals and Applications

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In course

ChE-410: Catalysis for emission control and energy processes

The course is an introduction to heterogeneous catalysis for environmental protection and energy production. It focuses on catalytic exhaust gas cleaning as well as gaseous and liquid fuel production. The course content is intensified in experimental exerc ...

Description

This lecture covers the synthesis of catalytic materials, including catalyst structuring, deactivation, and supported catalysts. It explains the importance of catalysts in lowering activation energy, the components of a heterogeneous catalyst, and the preparation methods of supported catalysts like impregnation and deposition-precipitation.

Instructor

Oliver Kröcher

Expertise Catalysis, Sustainable Energy Carriers from CO₂ and Biomass, Emission Control, Environmental Chemistry, Materials Chemistry Mission The Group for Sustainable Energy Carriers (GSE) at EPFL works on the development of catalytic processes for the production and use of carbon-neutral energy carriers and intermediates. Current Work Small-scale ammonia synthesis, using induction-heating and sorption-enhancement. Oliver Kröcher was born in Germany and received his Diploma in chemistry from the University

Official source

Related concepts (25)

Catalyst poisoning

Catalyst poisoning is the partial or total deactivation of a catalyst by a chemical compound. Poisoning refers specifically to chemical deactivation, rather than other mechanisms of catalyst degradation such as thermal decomposition or physical damage. Although usually undesirable, poisoning may be helpful when it results in improved catalyst selectivity (e.g. Lindlar's catalyst). An important historic example was the poisoning of catalytic converters by leaded fuel.

Nanomaterial-based catalyst

Nanomaterial-based catalysts are usually heterogeneous catalysts broken up into metal nanoparticles in order to enhance the catalytic process. Metal nanoparticles have high surface area, which can increase catalytic activity. Nanoparticle catalysts can be easily separated and recycled. They are typically used under mild conditions to prevent decomposition of the nanoparticles. Functionalized metal nanoparticles are more stable toward solvents compared to non-functionalized metal nanoparticles.

Chemical kinetics

Chemical kinetics, also known as reaction kinetics, is the branch of physical chemistry that is concerned with understanding the rates of chemical reactions. It is different from chemical thermodynamics, which deals with the direction in which a reaction occurs but in itself tells nothing about its rate. Chemical kinetics includes investigations of how experimental conditions influence the speed of a chemical reaction and yield information about the reaction's mechanism and transition states, as well as the construction of mathematical models that also can describe the characteristics of a chemical reaction.

Chemical reaction

A chemical reaction is a process that leads to the chemical transformation of one set of chemical substances to another. Classically, chemical reactions encompass changes that only involve the positions of electrons in the forming and breaking of chemical bonds between atoms, with no change to the nuclei (no change to the elements present), and can often be described by a chemical equation. Nuclear chemistry is a sub-discipline of chemistry that involves the chemical reactions of unstable and radioactive elements where both electronic and nuclear changes can occur.

Activation energy

In chemistry and physics, activation energy is the minimum amount of energy that must be provided for compounds to result in a chemical reaction. The activation energy (Ea) of a reaction is measured in joules per mole (J/mol), kilojoules per mole (kJ/mol) or kilocalories per mole (kcal/mol). Activation energy can be thought of as the magnitude of the potential barrier (sometimes called the energy barrier) separating minima of the potential energy surface pertaining to the initial and final thermodynamic state.

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