Non-equilibrium thermodynamics as a tool to compute temperature at the catalyst surface

Area of Science:

• Chemical Engineering
• Physical Chemistry
• Thermodynamics

Background:

• Heterogeneous catalysis is crucial for industrial processes.
• Understanding surface temperature effects is key to reaction kinetics.
• Classical kinetics may not fully capture complex catalytic systems.

Purpose of the Study:

• To compute surface temperature for CO oxidation on platinum.
• To investigate the coupling between reaction rate and thermal driving force.
• To extend classical reaction kinetics using non-equilibrium thermodynamics.

Main Methods:

• Utilized non-equilibrium thermodynamic theory.
• Employed numerical simulations to explore theoretical predictions.
• Validated results against existing experimental data for CO oxidation.

Main Results:

• Successfully computed surface temperature for the catalytic system.
• Demonstrated a coupling between reaction rate and thermal driving force.
• Numerical results align with reported experimental data.

Conclusions:

• Non-equilibrium thermodynamics provides a framework for understanding catalytic surface temperatures.
• The identified coupling offers insights into non-linear Arrhenius plots.
• This approach can enhance the predictive power of reaction kinetics models.