Chemical Reaction Engineering at the Molecular Scale

Chemical reaction engineering (CRE) has traditionally addressed the impact of heat and mass transfer occurring in catalyst pellets and catalytic reactors. Advances in the characterization of catalysts and in the ability to described the thermodynamics of adsorption and the kinetics of elementary processes at the atomic and molecular levels have opened the way for extending the length scale of CRE from the scale of meters to microns down to the level of Ǻngstroms. This talk will illustrate what can be learned about the performance of catalysts at the atomic and molecular scale through the application of experimental techniques. Illustrations will be drawn from recent studies devoted to the reactions of hydrocarbons over zeolites, the condensation of aldehydes and ketones at acid-base pairs supported on silica, and the electrochemical splitting of water. Some comments on what can be expected for CRE in the future will also be offered.