Preface

It is hard to imagine a period of time in which catalysis has been more important to industry and academia. There is increased attention to clean fuels/energy and fundamental research into characterization and synthesis of advanced materials. The chapters in this volume reflect these facts:

Five of the chapters in this volume can be considered directly related to this topic. First, Edd Blekkan, Øyvind Borg, Vidar Frøseth, and Anders Holmen (Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim) review recent work on the effect of water on the Fischer-Tropsch reaction. Steam is both a reactant and product in this syngas-based process, and its effect on Co- and Fe-based catalysts is important in determining the activity and selectivity of the FT process.

Dan Resasco (with colleagues Phuong Do, Steven Crossley, Malee Santikunaporn; University of Oklahoma) examine strategies for improving important fuel properties catalytically—e.g., cetane number and threshold soot index. They show that proper choice of catalysts and reaction conditions can significantly improve these widely used measures of fuel performance.

Velu Subramani and Chunshan Song (Pennsylvania State University) show that ethanol reforming can provide a readily transportable form of hydrogen, provided it can be reformed into a hydrogen-rich gas at the point of use, e.g., in a fuel cell. They show that various types of catalysts are active for three types of reforming: steam reforming, partial oxidation, and autothermal reforming. Each presents its own catalytic challenges; e.g., deactivation in the case of partial oxidation.

The decomposition of methanol can be used both to provide hydrogen and for “thermal upgrading”—using waste heat to drive the endothermic decomposition reaction. Justin Hargreaves and Graham Ormsby (University of Glasgow) show that catalysts for the various decomposition reactions include acid catalysts (yielding dimethyl ether), base catalysts (yielding formaldehyde), and supported metal catalysts (yielding CO and hydrogen).

Gary Jacobs and Burt Davis (University of Kentucky) review catalysts used for low-temperature water gas shift, one of the key steps in fuel processors designed to convert liquid fuels into hydrogen-rich gas streams for fuel cells. These catalysts must closely approach the favorable equilibrium associated with low temperatures, but be active enough to minimize reactor volume. The authors discuss both heterogeneous and homogeneous catalysts for this reaction, with the latter including bases and metal carbonyls.

The use of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to study flow patterns in reactors as well as to perform spatially resolved spectroscopy is reviewed by Lynn Gladden, Michael Mantle, and Andrew Sederman (University of Cambridge). This method allows even unsteady-state processes to be studied because of the rapid data acquisition pulse sequence methods that can now be used. In addition, MRI can be used to study systems with short nuclear spin relaxation times—e.g., to study coke distribution in catalytic reactors.

Matthew Hyman and Will Medlin (University of Colorado) review the surface chemistry of electrode reactions, with the intent of introducing this subject to the non-electrochemists. They show the basics of both thermodynamic and kinetic analysis of these reactions, with examples that demonstrate these key principles.

Although platinum is the metal of choice for PEM fuel cell cathodes, Paul Matter, Elizabeth Biddinger, and Umit Ozkan (Ohio State University) show that non-precious metals will have to be developed for this type of fuel cell to become practical and widely used. Although few materials have the electrochemical properties needed to replace platinum, this review discusses candidates such as macrocycle compounds, non-marcrocyclic pyrolyzed carbons, conducting polymers, chalcogenides, and heteropolyacids.

Gabriele Centi and Siglinda Perathoner (University of Messina, Italy) look at how quasi-one-dimensional catalyst morphologies can be synthesized. Though they focus on titania as an example, they also show how this technique can be used for more general types of supports and catalysts.

We greatly appreciate the work of the authors who have contributed to this volume. It has been a pleasure to edit this volume, and we look forward to the next installment, which is already underway.

As always, comments are welcome.