A Nonmetal Catalyst for Molecular Hydrogen Activation with Comparable Catalytic Hydrogenation Capability to Noble Metal Catalyst

摘要

Molecular hydrogen not only is a bright future fuel but also is widely used today in fundamental chemical transformations. For example, all crude oil is treated with H_2 and 10~8 tons of ammonia fertilizer is produced annually via catalytic hydrogenation. Any small improvement of the performance and cost of the catalysts would help to cut the cost of these important processes. But such improvements are hard to achieve because the H_2 is held together in a strong marriage. It can be split apart only by using a transition metal in most of the catalytic systems known.