Catalysis

摘要

During the past few decades, catalytic reactions and catalysts have several times been considered as important enough to warrant the award of Nobel Prizes in chemistry. The importance of catalysis research is largely based on the improved energy efficiency and greater environmental friendliness of processes employing catalysts, rendering their application in chemical industries highly advantageous. Many catalytic processes also appeal through the elegance of the reaction cycles that they allow. Catalysis research, which originally belonged to the domains of organometallics, solid state chemistry (catalysts), or organic chemistry (substrates), nowadays draws on the full spectrum of the chemical sciences, and derives motivation from the related natural sciences of biology (biocatalysts), physics (characterization techniques), and engineering (e.g., reactor engineering).