Selective ethylene oxidation on novel curved model catalysts

Heterogeneous catalysis has made a wide range of highly functionalized materials available to us and therefore is an important contributor to economy and society.

Ethylene epoxidation is a keystone process of the chemical industry, because it produces one of the building block chemicals, ethylene oxide, from which a range of high-value chemicals can be manufactured.

However, product formation competes with complete combustion to CO2, and the process is nowadays the largest CO2 emitter of the European industry.

The reaction mechanisms that lead to either EO or CO2 formation, as well as the role of the catalytic surface, are still not determined.

The project will implement a new approach to study the mechanism of ethylene oxidation under realistic reaction conditions, while making use of surface-sensitive and atomically accurate techniques.

We will employ curved single crystals with tuneable surface structures as model catalysts to unveil site-specific reaction pathways for ethylene oxidation under both UHV and reaction conditions.

We will explore the formation of different intermediate species, and determine the selectivity of the ethylene oxidation reaction.

This approach significantly exceeds the current state-of-the-art, setting a new paradigm for the understanding of catalytic systems. The impact on academic research and industrial applications will be substantial.