CHE4067F

Catalysis Specialisation

RSA Olefins

Syngas

Paraffin
Activation

Patricia Kooyman - SARChI Nano Materials for Catalysis

patricia.kooyman@uct.ac.za
 Catalysis - history

< 1834 ‘pre-history’

1835 from empirics to science
1898 industrial catalysis
1920 petroleum industry
1946 from war to peace
~1970 environmental & computational catalysis

Lindström & Pettersson, CatTech 7 (2003) 130

 Catalysis - pre-history < 1834

Catalysis was ‘used’ without investigation

or understanding

Alchemy

Alcohol by fermentation (bio-catalysis)

1552 first non-bio-catalysis

alcohol to ether using sulphuric acid
 Catalysis - alchemy

Search for catalyst to convert base metals

into noble metals

Philosopher’s stone

Isolated discoveries

Empirical approach
 Catalysis - alchemy

1597 - Alchemia - Libavius

First chemistry textbook

First reference to catalysis as chemical phenomenon

still alchemical approach
 Catalysis - towards science

1835 Berzelius’ definition of catalysis

systematic research

enhanced perception of chemical reactions

discovery of new catalytic processes

 Catalysis - towards science

rate dependency on concentration

reversibility

1877 Van ’t Hoff - ‘rate constant’

1884 Le Chatelier - T,p dependency

 Catalysis - towards science

1877 - Lemoine

catalyst increases rate at which equilibrium is reached

catalyst does NOT change position of equilibrium

 Catalysis - industrial catalysis

1898 - important problem in sulphuric acid

production solved

discovery and implementation of new

catalytic processes
 Catalysis - industrial catalysis

Haber
ammonia - high p required Bosch
Fe
Nernst
fertiliser Mittasch

explosives
Great War
via nitric acid
 Catalysis during Great War

applied catalysis

ammonia for explosives

Langmuir - adsorption theory

Temperature Programmed Desorption
TPD
 Catalysis - petroleum industry

1920 - Standard Oil

isopropanol from petroleum

1922 - Fischer-Tropsch process

1921 - Midgley
tetra ethyl lead
 Catalysis - petroleum industry

1930 - steam reforming

1936 - Houdry
catalytic cracking

1941 - Fluid Catalytic Cracking (FCC)

 Catalysis - parallel to petroleum

1926 - Du Pont
methanol synthesis

1927 - Hinshelwood
Langmuir-Hinshelwood kinetics
 Catalysis - from war to peace

petroleum industry still very important

also production of ‘chemicals’ from petroleum

1949 - first catalysis conference

- first naphtha reforming plant

1950 - first Faraday Discussions on Catalysis

 Catalysis - from war to peace

1953 - Ziegler-Natta polymerisation

- bifunctional catalysis

1954 - Eischen
IR of adsorbed species

1956 - First ICC - 500+ delegates

 Catalysis - from war to peace

1960 - First issue of J. Catal.

1964 - Zeolite catalysed cracking

- Mechanism for hydro-cracking
- Methathesis

1965 - First homogeneous catalytic industrial process

Wilkinson; hydrogenation
 Catalysis - environmental
- computational

From about 1970

Environmental concerns

Availability of computers
 Catalysis - environmental

Increasing emphasis on selectivity

reduce side-products and waste

Exhaust-gas catalysis (3-way catalyst)

Selective Catalytic Reduction (reduce NOx)

 Catalysis - computational

Computers more and more powerful

‘in silico’ chemistry

Theory better understood

Combination of theory and experiment very powerful