Preface
Kαταλυσις, as coined by Berzelius in an 1835 report to the Swedish Academy of
Sciences, concerns the capacity of a substance to start a reaction without taking part
in it and not being consumed.
1 After many studies and interpretations, Ostwald in
1894 stated that the exclusive role of the catalyst is to accelerate the reaction rate,
and in 1901, one year before patenting the process for the production of nitric oxide
by catalytic oxidation of ammonia, he gave this definition: “A catalyst is a substance that alters a chemical reaction rate without being part of the final products.”
In the “Institut de Chimie” created in 1906 in Toulouse by Paul Sabatier, we can
mention the analysis of Senderens and Sabatier that nickel, and more generally a
catalyst, gives the origin of a true chemical reaction.
2 Their discovery from 1902 of
the methanation process from CO 2 and H 2 , known as the Sabatier process, is still
used in space stations to recycle CO 2 and mainly to produce water.
3
CO 2 þ 4 H 2 ! CH 4 þ H 2 O=finely divided nickel; 300
∘ C
Today we know that a catalyst decreases the activation energy not only of the
reaction but also of each step. Thus it is possible by adjusting the catalyst composition to follow preferentially a chemical pathway in order to combine a high
activity (measured by the turnover frequency), a complete chemoselectivity to
obtain only one product, a great regioselectivity to have a privileged access to an
isomer, and in many cases an important enantioselectivity to favor one enantiomer
or diastereoisomer. Moreover, it is important to have a long-lived catalyst, which is
1 S. Califano, Pathways to Modern Chemical Physics, 2012, Springer.
2 P. Sabatier, J.-B. Senderens, Comptes Rendus Hebdomadaires de l’Acade ´mie des Sciences,
1897, 124, 616–618 and 1358–1361.
3 P. Sabatier, J.-B. Senderens, Comptes Rendus Hebdomadaires de l’Acade ´mie des Sciences,
1902, 134, 514–516.
v
Kαταλυσις, as coined by Berzelius in an 1835 report to the Swedish Academy of
Sciences, concerns the capacity of a substance to start a reaction without taking part
in it and not being consumed.
1 After many studies and interpretations, Ostwald in
1894 stated that the exclusive role of the catalyst is to accelerate the reaction rate,
and in 1901, one year before patenting the process for the production of nitric oxide
by catalytic oxidation of ammonia, he gave this definition: “A catalyst is a substance that alters a chemical reaction rate without being part of the final products.”
In the “Institut de Chimie” created in 1906 in Toulouse by Paul Sabatier, we can
mention the analysis of Senderens and Sabatier that nickel, and more generally a
catalyst, gives the origin of a true chemical reaction.
2 Their discovery from 1902 of
the methanation process from CO 2 and H 2 , known as the Sabatier process, is still
used in space stations to recycle CO 2 and mainly to produce water.
3
CO 2 þ 4 H 2 ! CH 4 þ H 2 O=finely divided nickel; 300
∘ C
Today we know that a catalyst decreases the activation energy not only of the
reaction but also of each step. Thus it is possible by adjusting the catalyst composition to follow preferentially a chemical pathway in order to combine a high
activity (measured by the turnover frequency), a complete chemoselectivity to
obtain only one product, a great regioselectivity to have a privileged access to an
isomer, and in many cases an important enantioselectivity to favor one enantiomer
or diastereoisomer. Moreover, it is important to have a long-lived catalyst, which is
1 S. Califano, Pathways to Modern Chemical Physics, 2012, Springer.
2 P. Sabatier, J.-B. Senderens, Comptes Rendus Hebdomadaires de l’Acade ´mie des Sciences,
1897, 124, 616–618 and 1358–1361.
3 P. Sabatier, J.-B. Senderens, Comptes Rendus Hebdomadaires de l’Acade ´mie des Sciences,
1902, 134, 514–516.
v