Mechanisms of Surface Hydrogenation Reactions

化学系化学结构、动力学和机理（CSDM-A）项目将资助芝加哥伊利诺伊大学的Michael Trenary教授进行实验工作，研究金属合金表面分子的催化氢化。这些反应在工业和有机合成应用中都很重要。Trenary小组正在研究的特殊金属催化剂是将少量昂贵的金属与廉价金属的表面合金化。这类研究的最终目标是以更低的成本获得与更昂贵的催化剂具有相同效果的催化剂。在这个项目中工作的研究生和本科生，许多来自代表性不足的群体，将接受超高真空科学方法的培训，同时研究具有广泛影响的社会重要化学问题。Trenary教授开始与芝加哥地区的奥利维哈维学院（Olive-Harvey College）进行新的合作，为奥利维哈维学院的本科生提供在他的实验室做研究的机会。奥利维哈维学院的学生主要是非裔美国人。Michael Trenary教授和他的研究小组将使用反射/吸附红外光谱（RAIRS）来监测被少量催化活性金属修饰（合金）的金属表面吸附的简单分子的反应性。RAIRS实验将包括与时间相关的研究，旨在测量基本反应步骤的活化能，以及在高氢压力下的原位研究，旨在保持氢在加氢反应发生温度下的表面覆盖率。所研究的金属体系包括Pd-Cu（111）和Pt-Ru（0001）。研究的反应包括丙烯醛的加氢、乙炔选择性加氢成乙烯、表面N原子的加氢；吸附的CN加氢生成甲烷和氨。通过与日本理化学研究所STM研究人员的合作，这项工作将具有国际规模。

With this award, the Chemical Structure, Dynamics and Mechanisms (CSDM-A) Program of the Division of Chemistry is funding Professor Michael Trenary of the University of Illinois at Chicago to conduct experimental work looking at the catalytic hydrogenation of molecules on metal alloy surfaces. These reactions are important in industrial as well as in organic synthesis applications. The particular metal catalysts that the Trenary group is looking at have a small amount of an expensive metal alloyed with the surface of an inexpensive metal. The ultimate goal of research like this is to obtain catalysts that have the same effectiveness as more expensive catalysts at much lower cost. The graduate and undergraduate students, many from underrepresented groups, working on this project will receive training in ultrahigh vacuum science methods, while working on societally-important chemical problems with very broad impact. Prof. Trenary begins a new collaboration with Olive-Harvey College, a Chicago-area college with a predominantly African-American student body, providing Olive-Harvey undergraduates with the opportunity to do research in his laboratory.Professor Michael Trenary and his research group will use reflection/adsorption infrared spectroscopy (RAIRS) to monitor the reactivity of simple molecules adsorbed to a metal surface that has been modified (alloyed) with a small amount of a catalytically active metal. The RAIRS experiments will include time dependent studies designed to measure activation energies of elementary reaction steps and in situ studies at elevated hydrogen pressures designed to maintain hydrogen surface coverages at the temperatures where the hydrogenation reactions occur. The metal systems to be studied include Pd-Cu(111) and Pt-Ru(0001). Reactions to be studied include the hydrogenation of acrolein, the selective hydrogenation of acetylene to ethylene, the hydrogenation of surface N atoms; and the hydrogenation of adsorbed CN to methane and ammonia. The work will take on an international dimension through collaboration with STM researchers at RIKEN in Japan.