No abstract

The mechanism of the hydrogenation of olefins catalyzed by metal surfaces was probed by using isotope labeling in conjunction with a high-flux effusive molecular beam setup capable of sustaining steady-state conversion under well-controlled ultrahigh vacuum (UHV). The unique conditions afforded by this instrument, namely, a single collision regime and impinging frequencies equivalent to pressures in the mTorr range, led to the clear identification of two competing pathways: a multiple H-D isotope exchange channel explained by the well-known Horiuti-Polanyi mechanism but with an unusually high probability for β-hydride elimination from the alkyl surface intermediate (versus its reductive elimination to the alkane), and a direct addition route that produces dideuterated alkanes selectively. The latter may follow an Eley-Rideal mechanism involving an adsorbate (either the olefin or the hydrogen/deuterium atoms resulting from dissociative adsorption of H2/D2) and a gas-phase molecule (the other reactant), or, alternatively, it could reflect the limited diffusion of the hydrogen atoms on the surface under catalytic conditions because of site blocking by the islands of strongly bonded carbonaceous (alkylidyne) layers present during catalysis. Regardless, our data clearly show that the distribution of alkane isotopologues obtained from the conversion of olefins with deuterium can deviate significantly from statistical expectations.

A high-flux molecular beam setup has been used to characterize the kinetics of the steady-state catalytic hydrogenation of unsaturated aldehydes, specifically of crotonaldehyde, promoted by platinum surfaces under single-collision conditions. Surprisingly, in addition to the hydrogenation of the individual single bonds, to yield the saturated aldehyde and the unsaturated alcohol, the formation of the saturated alcohol, the product of the hydrogenation of both C═C and C═O bonds, was detected as well. This indicates that the dual hydrogenation reaction is a primary pathway and not the result of secondary hydrogenation of the other products as commonly assumed. Moreover, an increase in the partial pressure of the reactant was found to shift the reaction selectivity from the saturated alcohol to the saturated aldehyde without significantly affecting the selectivity toward the production of the unsaturated alcohol. We explain these observations by proposing a mechanism involving the parallel formation of several monohydrogenated intermediates on the surface.

A study of the kinetics of the hydrogenation of ethylene promoted by hydrogen was performed by using a high-flux molecular beam in order to probe the intermediate pressure regime between the ultrahigh vacuum (UHV) used in surface-science experiments and the atmospheric conditions used in catalysis, the so-called “pressure gap”.