Malte Behrens

TL;DR: This work shows how to identify the crucial atomic structure motif for the industrial Cu/ZnO/Al2O3 methanol synthesis catalyst by using a combination of experimental evidence from bulk, surface-sensitive, and imaging methods collected on real high-performance catalytic systems in combination with density functional theory calculations.

TL;DR: There still is a gap between the model studies conducted with well-defined simplified materials with clean surfaces at low pressures to elaborate the current knowledge of ammonia synthesis and the industrial process, and the question of a dynamical change of the catalyst under true reaction conditions remains to be studied and calls for in situ experimentation.

TL;DR: The intermetallic compounds Pd(3)Ga(7), PdGa, and Pd (2)Ga are found to be highly selective semihydrogenation catalysts for acetylene outperforming established systems.

TL;DR: In this article, the authors show how the presence or absence of the Zn promoter dramatically changes not only the activity, but also unexpectedly the reaction mechanism itself, and propose two different sites for methanol synthesis, Zn-promoted and unpromoted.

TL;DR: For the first time, clear evidence for the formation of metastable "graphite-like" ZnO layers during reductive activation is provided and might contribute to the understanding of synergistic effects between the components of the Cu/ZnO/Al2 O3 catalysts.