9 - Concluding remarks and challenges of heterogeneous catalysis on metal oxides

Abstract

In the different chapters of this book, it has been shown how important catalysis is for the future both in environmental domain and in chemistry, as 85%–90% of all chemical processes include at least one catalytic step. In heterogeneous catalysis, four main areas have to be considered for the future: (1) correlation structure, dynamical rearrangements, transition state and reaction intermediates; (2) new strategies of catalyst preparation to establish a molecular control of structures (e.g. nanoparticles as most catalysts heterogeneous, homogeneous, and enzymes are NPs); (3) molecular characterization of the working catalysts, for information about the elementary steps; (4) methane and CO2 conversions, electro-catalysis (electrochemistry, photoelectrochemistry), water splitting, hydrogen sources, replacement of liquid homogeneous acid catalysts by solids, development of the theory of catalytic processes.