Transforming Energy with Single-Atom Catalysts

摘要

Ever since the beginning of the twentieth century, the demand for energy and technological advances have been intercorrelated with the rapid development of new processes for the conversion of different forms of energy. The development and expansion of the car generated the increased demand for the liquid instead of previously dominant solid fuels. Most fractions of crude oil, the only abundant resource of liquid energy carriers, however, are not suitable for combustion in engines. Following the demand of lower molecular weight products, thermal cracking, the decomposition of longer into shorter hydrocarbons was developed. If a solid acid catalyst is added, the reaction can occur at significantly lower temperatures, and the selectivity to fuels with a higher octane number is increased. Catalysts, therefore, act by facilitating the overall reaction as well as favoring certain products, resulting in the reduced energy consumption of the process. This and other closely related catalytic processes nowadays are used to produce almost all available petrol, jet, and diesel fuels. Beyond hydrocarbon cracking, catalytic materials have been used for a variety of reactions such as the Haber-Bosch process for the fixation of atmospheric nitrogen, the production of hydrogen from natural gas, the synthesis of plastics, and commodity and fine chemicals-most of which rely on the use of metallic transition metals on metal oxides.