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Synthesis

Grinding Out Reactions Boosts Catalytic Rate

Mechanical energy from ball milling enhances rate of carbon monoxide oxidation

by Mitch Jacoby
October 7, 2013 | A version of this story appeared in Volume 91, Issue 40

Heterogeneous catalytic reactions, which involve solid catalysts and liquid or gaseous reagents, are nearly always driven by thermal energy—heat. A few solid-state reactions are driven by mechanical energy, as provided, for example, by grinding solid reagents in a ball mill. The enhancing effect of mechanical energy on solid-state reactions led Sarah Immohr, Ferdi Schüth, and coworkers at the Max Planck Institute for Coal Research, in Germany, to consider whether ball milling would accelerate heterogeneously catalyzed gas-phase reactions. For one reaction, they found that indeed it does. By comparing results obtained from a specially designed ball-mill reactor to those from a conventional reactor, the team found that the rate of CO oxidation by O2 in the presence of solid Cr2O3 catalyst is 1,000 times as high at room temperature and 10 times as high at 100 °C (Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2013, DOI: 10.1002/anie.201305992). Schüth and coworkers suggest that this finding, which they do not fully understand even after having conducted a series of control tests, could lead to new process options in the chemical industry.

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