ABSTRACT
Probably the single case of reactions most important in chemical reaction engineer ing application are those which occur on solid surfaces when an heterogeneous catalyst is used to promote the rate of reaction (catalysis). Catalysts for various reactions are found among a wide variety of metals, metal oxides, and metals on various support materials such as carbon and metal oxides. One property of most catalysts is that they provide a large amount of surface per unit volume on which reaction can occur, which normally requires the effective surface to be contained within a porous matrix of some sort. This particular characteristic leads to a number of interesting and important problems arising from the interaction of the rates of transport of mass and energy through such porous matrices, which we shall discuss in detail later. Further, since we wish to discuss the more general aspects of the theory of surface reactions, we shall not be involved with the details of the mechanisms of too many specific reactions, although the ubiquitous A and B will be transformed into real chemical entities in the exercises associated with this chapter.
