Liquid-Solid Adsorption Properties: Measurement of the Effective Surface Acidity of Solid Catalysts

Abstract

Attention should be devoted to the measurements of the adsorption properties of catalytic surfaces when they have to work in liquid-solid heterogeneous conditions. The mutual characteristics of the surface and the liquid affect the reagent interactions with the surface sites which could be engaged with the liquid interaction and then not-available for the reagent coordination. This leads to observe effective adsorption properties that could be different from the intrinsic properties of the surface. The possibility to quantitatively determine the effective acid properties of catalytic surfaces by base adsorption is here showed. The adsorption can proceed in any type of liquid of various characteristics (apolar, polar, aprotic, protic) with dynamic (pulse liquid chromatographic method) or equilibrium (liquid recirculation chromatographic method) methods. The measurements of effective acidity allows finding more sound relations with the catalytic activity for a better comprehension of the catalyst work and for a more correct determination of the turnover numbers in liquid-solid catalysis.