Application
Catalysis
Accelerating a reaction with a substance that is not consumed by it.
A catalyst offers a reaction an easier path, and emerges unchanged. That makes catalytic materials unusual economically: a small quantity can process an enormous throughput over years, so the cost of an expensive metal is spread very thin.
The useful catalysts are the ones that bind reactants firmly enough to weaken their bonds and loosely enough to let the products go. That is a narrow window, and it is why the same handful of elements appear again and again.
Medium confidence Weak evidence checked recently · only one source, so there is nothing to cross-check it against · stated directly by the source
How this connects
Where a connection has been confirmed by an outside reference, that reference is named beside it.
uses
- Silver — element · in ethylene oxide production
- Cerium — element · as an oxygen buffer in the catalyst washcoat
- Chlorine — element · chlor-alkali production underpins much of industrial chemistry
- Iridium — element · spark plug electrodes and crucibles, where nothing else survives the conditions
- Sodium — element · sodium compounds are among the commonest industrial bases
- Platinum — element · autocatalysts, petroleum reforming and fuel cells
- Rhodium — element
- Palladium — element · oxidises unburnt hydrocarbons and carbon monoxide in petrol exhaust
- Ruthenium — element · ammonia synthesis, hydrogenation and metathesis
- Rhenium — element · with platinum, raises the octane rating of petrol
- Lanthanum — element · fluid catalytic cracking, which underlies most transport fuel supply
- Vanadium — element · vanadium pentoxide is the catalyst of the contact process
- Catalytic converter — object · the largest catalytic application by metal value there is
Sources
- Material WorldOur own writing