Adsorption and Catalysis on Transition Metals and Their Oxides

This book is the third in a three-volume series treating the adsorptive, catalytic and electronic properties of solid surfaces. The authors are the first to treat surface chemical bonding in compounds of transition metals from a unified viewpoint taking ideas from both physics and chemistry. This volume gives an account of active sites in complexes and on the surfaces of metals and oxides in terms of the electronic structure of transition metal atoms. Possible mechanisms of interaction of simple molecules with such active sites are also discussed. All chemists and physicists concerned with the study of catalysis, adsorption and surface phenomena should find this book useful and interesting.

This book deals with adsorption and catalysis on the surface of transition elements and their compounds, many of which are in- teresting because of their particular electronic structure. The authors have worked through a vast body of experimental evi- dence on the structure and properties of surfaces of transition metals and relevant oxides. Consideration is given mostly to simple (as opposed to mixed) oxides of transition elements, to common metals and to the adsorption of simple gases. A great deal of attention is paid to the nature of active surface sites responsible for chemisorption and catalytic transformations. The description relies mainly on the simplified ligand-field theory, which, however, proves quite satisfactory for predicting the adsorptive and catalytic activity of species. In many cases simple systems were explored with the aid of novel techniques, and it is only for such systems that the mechanism of the ele- mentary act of adsorption and catalysis can be given adequate treatment. The present monograph has emerged from our earlier work in Russian, which appeared in the Khimiya Publishing House (Mos- cow) in 1981. This English edition has, however, been revised completely to broaden its scope and to include more recent a- chievements. For fruitful discussions the authors are grateful to A.A.

Contents: Introduction.- The Electronic Structure of Transition-Metal Atoms.- The Surfaces of Transition-Metal Oxides.- Adsorption and Catalysis on Oxides of Transition Metals.- The Surface of the Transition Metals.- Adsorption and Catalysis on the Transition Metals.- Conclusion.- References.- Subject Index.