Department of Physics


Department of Physics Apple - Gravity

Phone (701) 231-8974, fax (701) 231-7088


Seminar Abstract

October 8, 2003:

"Elementary Reaction Steps
in the Synthesis of Methanol
"

Professor Uwe Burghaus
Department of Chemistry
North Dakota State University

Industrially, the most important catalyst for the synthesis of methanol is a ternary Cu/ZnO/Al2O3 system, and the synthesis gas consists of CO, CO2, and H2. Although detailed studies about methanol synthesis have been conducted on metal surfaces for many years, even now little is known about the kinetic and dynamic parameters, respectively, characterizing the elementary reaction steps on metal oxide model catalysts. Furthermore, almost nothing is known about the adsorption structure of the participating reactant; i.e., the nature of the active site is still not known. Therefore our methodology is to study the adsorption kinetics, adsorption dynamics, and adsorption structure of the reactants participating in the methanol synthesis reaction on single crystal metal oxide surfaces relevant for the synthesis reaction. Two examples might illustrate this approach: first, the adsorption of hydrogen, and second, the adsorption of CO on ZnO. The systems have mainly been investigated by means of molecular beam scattering techniques accompanied by Monte Carlo simulations.