Heterogeneous catalysis: understanding the fundamentals for catalyst design

Abstract

Spiers Memorial Lecture ; Taking the chemoselective hydrogenation of substituted nitroaromatics as a base case, it will be shown that it is possible to design improved and new catalysts by attacking the problem in a multidisciplinary way. By combining molecular modeling with in situ operando spectroscopy, and with micro-kinetic and isotopic studies, it is possible to determine how and where on the catalysts the reactant molecules interact. Then, materials synthesis methods can be applied to prepare catalysts with the desired surface active sites and their selective interaction with the reactants. ; This work was funded by the Spanish Government (Severo Ochoa program SEV2012-0267). The support of the European Union by (ERC-AdG-2014-671093 – SynCatMatch) is also acknowledged. ; Peer Reviewed