Determination of the chemical properties of an oxide catalyst in a closed system

Abstract

The bulk chemical properties of an impregnated chromia-alumina catalyst with respect to several gases, CO, C02, C3H6, were determined as a function of the degree of oxidation of the surface of the catalyst. The importance of the results lies in the demonstration that a simple method described herein can be used to obtain significant data on catalytic surfaces. Briefly, the prior adsorption of oxygen by the catalyst tended to promote the adsorption of carbon monoxide and to prohibit the adsorption of carbon dioxide. Far more carbon monoxide was adsorbed by the highly oxidized surface than could be accounted for on the basis of adsorbed carbon dioxide. The quantity of propylene adsorbed also increased with an increase in the oxidation of the surface. The results are explained on the basis of two types of adsorbed oxygen atoms.

Notes

“…Received April 19,1960 When Rabinovitch and Hulatt1 reinvestigated the thermal isomerization of trans-1,2-dichloroethylene they obtained rate constants which were 1/50 to 1/150 the size of the commonly accepted values of Jones and Taylor.2 Work carried out both in this Laboratory and at Edinburgh confirms the findings of Rabinovitch and Hulatt and indicates that the reaction proceeds by a free radical chain, so it can no longer be considered an example of a unimolecular reaction.…”