Catal­y­sis is any chem­i­cal reac­tion that involves a cat­a­lyst. Indus­tri­al cat­alyt­ic reac­tions are usu­al­ly the ones which are car­ried out on a large scale. Cat­a­lysts are chem­i­cal sub­stances which allow the reac­tants an alter­na­tive path­way to break and make desired bonds. In the pres­ence of the cat­a­lyst, the reac­tants require com­par­a­tive­ly low­er acti­va­tion ener­gy. Sev­er­al research lab­o­ra­to­ries and indus­tri­al com­plex­es have been research­ing how a cat­a­lyst works. The basic mech­a­nism is dif­fer­ent for indi­vid­ual class­es of cat­a­lysts. Industrial catalysis Main­ly, cat­a­lysts are cat­e­go­rized as either homo­ge­neous or het­ero­ge­neous. Let’s learn a bit more about the lat­ter type as these are fre­quent­ly used in indus­tries.

Het­ero­ge­neous catalysts

These are the cat­a­lysts which are present in a dif­fer­ent phase than the reac­tants. This may be in a liquid/​liquid or gas/​solid or solid/​liquid. The most com­mon exam­ples of indus­tri­al het­ero­ge­neous catal­y­sis are reac­tions in which gas­es are passed over a sol­id cat­a­lyst. This is often a met­al, met­al oxide or zeo­lite cat­a­lyst. Pro­duc­tion of ammo­nia, crack­ing of gas oil and pro­duc­tion of nitric and sul­fu­ric acids are the most com­mon indus­tri­al reac­tions using these cat­a­lysts.

Role of cat­a­lysts in indus­tri­al reactions

industrial reactionsSo, what do these cat­a­lysts do ? Tak­ing the exam­ple of a sol­id met­al cat­a­lyst and gaseous reac­tants, let’s vis­it the process briefly. First, the gas mol­e­cules will inter­act with the ions of the cat­a­lyst on its sur­face. As a result, weak inter­mol­e­c­u­lar bonds are formed. This is known as physisorp­tion, or sim­ply, phys­i­cal adsorp­tion. Then comes chemisorp­tion, or chem­i­cal adsorp­tion, where chem­i­cal bonds are formed between the reac­tant mol­e­cules and the cat­a­lyst. A sim­ple exam­ple would be oxi­da­tion of car­bon monox­ide to form car­bon diox­ide in the pres­ence of pal­la­di­um, a met­al cat­a­lyst. This is an impor­tant reac­tion, con­vert­ing a harm­ful gas (CO) into a harm­less one (CO2). Excess of oxy­gen is uti­lized for the reac­tion, form­ing water as a byprod­uct. Here’s the chem­i­cal reac­tion that takes place : Pt/​Pd/​Rh 2CO + 2NO 2CO2 + N2 This is an essen­tial process, occur­ring in most vehi­cles’ cat­alyt­ic con­vert­ers. Oth­er sim­i­lar large scale appli­ca­tions also uti­lize these het­ero­ge­neous cat­a­lysts. Use of lig­ands The effi­cien­cy of these cat­a­lysts can fur­ther be improved by using spe­cif­ic lig­ands. For instance phos­phine lig­ands are often used in organ­ic syn­the­sis, espe­cial­ly in reac­tion where C-C, C-N and C-O bonds are cre­at­ed. At Wat­son Inter­na­tion­al, we offer high qual­i­ty afford­able cat­a­lysts and lig­ands well-suit­­ed for var­i­ous appli­ca­tions. Here are the top three lig­ands most fre­quent­ly demanded :  You can also browse through our list of cat­a­lysts here. We are a fine chem­i­cal com­pa­ny, offer­ing only top notch products.