J Chem Educ. 2021 Mar 09;98(3):935-940. doi: 10.1021/acs.jchemed.0c01101. Epub 2021 Jan 15.

Demonstration of the Influence of Specific Surface Area on Reaction Rate in Heterogeneous Catalysis.

Journal of chemical education

Paweł Bernard, Paweł Stelmachowski, Paweł Broś, Wacław Makowski, Andrzej Kotarba

PMID: 33814599 PMCID: PMC8016114 DOI: 10.1021/acs.jchemed.0c01101

Abstract

Heterogeneous catalysis plays an important role in many chemical reactions, especially those applied in industrial processes, and therefore, its theoretical foundations are introduced not only to students majoring in chemical engineering or catalysis but also as part of general chemistry courses. The consideration of catalytic activity of various solids and mechanisms of catalytic reactions requires the introduction of the concept of an active site, which together with the catalyst specific surface area are discussed as key parameters controlling the reaction rate. There are many known demonstrations of heterogeneous catalysis phenomena that can be performed live in a lecture hall, but all of them focus only on the general idea of catalytic processes and are not suitable for quantitative analysis. Therefore, herein we present a simple demonstration of the influence of the specific surface area of a catalyst on the rate of a catalytic reaction. This demonstration is based on a model reaction of hydrogen peroxide decomposition catalyzed by cobalt spinel (Co

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Conflict of interest statement

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