Bridging Materials and Pressure Gaps in Surface Science and Heterogeneous Catalysis

Abstract

Over the last several decades, surface science has undergone revolutionary advances that reveal the atomic- and molecular-level structural, dynamic, compositional, and thermodynamic properties of surfaces that are utilized in chemical process development. Adsorption and reaction rates and catalytic selectivity are also better understood, making the design of surfaces that deliver desired chemical properties possible. In this book, we highlight recent works in surface science and catalysis with an emphasis on the development of new catalytic model systems and in situ spectroscopic and microscopic techniques for applications in energy and environmental engineering. Colloid nanoparticle synthesis provides new opportunities to tune catalytic activity and selectivity via synthetic control of the size, composition, and shape of nanoparticles. Metal-oxide interfaces are catalytically active, suggesting the tunability of catalytic activity via engineering of metal-oxide interfaces. Energy conversion from photon or chemical energy to electrical energy has been studied via utilization of hot electron flows with metal–semiconductor nanodiodes. New in situ microscopic and spectroscopic techniques have been developed to uncover the atomic structure, mobility, reaction intermediates, and oxidation states that determine catalytic activity and selectivity. Breakthroughs in these research topics can help in the smart design of catalytic and energy materials with better performance and lower cost and may lead to new methods for renewable energy conversion.