Advanced aerosol technologies towards structure and morphologically controlled next-generation catalytic materials

Abstract

The requirements of advanced technologies, green chemistry, and air pollution remediation drive the development of heterogeneous catalysis. Two important factors defining catalyst quality are its efficiency and selectivity for a target reaction. Designing an effective catalyst structure requires understanding of the roles of particular scales of transport phenomena of chemical species during the catalytic process. Such phenomena include mass transfer in the bulk and on the surface of the catalyst and the chemical reaction mechanism at the catalyst active sites. Catalysts with controlled pore and surface topography can be fabricated by advanced aerosol methods such as spray drying and spray pyrolysis. Here, the principles of particle formation of desired morphology, including the topological background for obtaining allowed packing forms and conflict set theory to describe the self-organization process, are presented. Supporting nanostructures produced by spray drying and spray pyrolysis have been decorated with chemically active materials for use in selective catalytic processes.