Fundamental Concepts in Heterogeneous Catalysis

The first comprehensive text on the modern theory of heterogeneous catalysis

Heterogeneous catalysis is the cornerstone of chemical industry and also holds the key to new processes for sustainable energy conversion and sustainable production of feedstocks for the chemical industry.  Heterogeneous catalysis involves chemical transformations taking place at the surface of a solid, and is a very complex phenomenon. There is now a consistent set of concepts that allow an understanding of surface catalysis and they even form a basis for design principles for new catalysts.

Based on a graduate/senior-undergraduate course and suitable as a primer for anyone interested in understanding the field, Fundamental Concepts in Heterogeneous Catalysis presents:

- the fundamentals of surface reaction phenomena including potential energy diagrams, free energy diagrams, and kinetic models

- tools to reduce the complexity of heterogeneous catalysis including scaling relations

- an understanding of trends in catalysis including activity and selectivity maps

- an introduction to electronic structure effects in catalysis and an understanding of structural effects

- application to a series of heterogeneously catalyzed reactions including reactions of interest in energy conversion

- an integration of the conceptual frameworks of electro-catalysis and thermal heterogeneous catalysis

- an understanding of the effect of promoters and poisons in heterogeneous catalysis.

Unlike most textbooks in the field, the aim of this monograph is not to give a complete overview of the types of catalysts or catalytic processes, but to provide interested students and researchers with the atomic-scale concepts for understanding catalytic phenomena.