Applications of Electrical Conductivity Measurements in Heterogeneous Catalysis

Abstract

The use of electrical conductivity measurements in catalysis was developed in the 1950s when the Electronic Theory of Catalysis appeared. As the catalytic process is a succession of chemical reactions with the rupture of chemical bonds and the creation of new ones, it was natural to look at the electronic properties of the different partners — the reactants and the catalyst. It was expected that by controlling the electronic properties of the solid, its reactivity with respect to a given catalytic reaction could be controlled. However, as electronic processes are very fast phenomena, they do not constitute the rate-limiting step of a catalytic reaction. Thus the electronic theory of catalysis was found not to apply in numerous examples. By contrast, electical conductivity appeared as a fruitful technique to characterize many catalytic systems, as exemplified in this chapter.KeywordsMixed OxideOxygen PressureAnionic VacancyDoping EffectHydrogen SpilloverThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.