Studies in catalyst deactivation play a major role in the identification of the real catalytic system, in particular, the structure and texture of the solid, which is often in a metastable state, as it is operated in the industrial reactor. These studies also allow the identification of the experimental conditions which preserve this active and selective state. This is crucial for a real understanding of catalysts and catalysis. Another area of catalytic science concerns reactions kinetics, which, if properly determined, are of paramount importance in the elucidation of mechanisms. The...

In the field of heterogeneous catalysis. it is convenient to distinguish. in a perfectly unjustified and over..simplified way. bet: leen metal catalysts. 2nd the other catalysts. The fj.J"st are easy to define: they are those in which a reduced metal is the active phase. It is thus easy to circumscribe. by exclusion, the other class namely the "non-metals." We have adopted this definition for the sake of our colleagues working on catalysis by metals, and to avoid a lengthy title like "sm' face pl"operties and catalysts by transi tion metal oxides. sulftdes, carbides, nitriles, etc. Defined in...

Proceedings of the workshop, Interfaces in New Materials, held in Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 19-20 November 1990