EFFECTS OF FINITE REACTION RATES ON THE KINETIC PHASE TRANSITIONS IN THE CATALYTIC OXIDATION OF CARBON MONOXIDE

Abstract

Oxidation of carbon monoxide is one of the most extensively studied heterogeneous catalysis reactions, being important among other applications in automobile-emission control. Catalytic oxidation of carbon monoxide on platinum (111) surface was simulated by the Monte Carlo technique following an extended version of the model proposed by Ziff, Gulari and Barshad (ZGB). In the simulation, a simple square two-dimensional lattice of active sites replaces the surface of the catalyst. Finite reaction rates for (i) diffusion of the reactive species on the surface, (ii) reaction of a CO molecule with an oxygen atom in a nearest neighbor site, and (iii) desorption of unreacted CO molecules, have been taken into account. The produced CO 2 desorbs instantly. The average coverage of O, CO and the CO 2 production rate for a steady state configuration, as a function of the normalized CO partial pressure (P CO ), shows two kinetic phase transitions. In the ZGB model these transitions occur at P CO ≈ 0.39 and P CO ≈ 0.53. For 0.39 < P CO < 0.53 a reactive ( CO 2 production) steady state is found. Outside of the interval, the only steady state is a poisoned catalyst of pure CO or pure O. Our results show that finite reaction rates shift the values in which these phase transitions occur.