Catalysis on the Atomic Scale (Emmett Award Lecture of 1977)

Abstract

I am deeply honored to receive this award, named after one of the great surface chemists of this century, Paul Emmett. I have the good fortune to know him personally and to have interacted with him on many occasions. He is a personal and scientific inspiration to me as well as to several generations of surface and catalytic scientists who can call themselves his students. His broad knowledge of so many fields of chemical sciences and his constant evaluation of the boundaries of surface processes imposed by thermodynamics have led to his successful elucidation of the kinetics and mechanism of important catalytic processes. These include the ammonia synthesis and the hydrogenation of carbon monoxide over promoted iron catalysts, just to mention two of the important studies from his laboratory. Paul Emmett has instilled the love and respect of research in surface chemistry and in heterogeneous catalysis into all his students and associates by demonstrating through his own work that major innovations in technology are the result of persistent and creative research in the laboratory. Research in surface chemistry and in heterogeneous catalysis has been intertwined throughout his lifelong work, and he pursued research in a period when techniques were not available to investigate surface properties on the atomic scale. Yet, by careful determinations of macroparameters that included the surface area and the reaction rates, several atomic scale features that control the catalytic activity (the presence of active sites, the importance of surface diffusion or certain reaction intermediates) could be postulated.