Oxides:
Ceramics rare earth oxides, vanadia-based materials, micro-and mesoporous oxides, zeolites, sulphated-ZrO2 and layered materials – Architecture, synthetic methods, structure – property correlation and characterization, ion exchange, acidic and basic nature of these materials.
Clay chemistry:
Type and clays, kaolinites, hydrotalcites, clay polymers, clay colloids, and pillared clays. Structure, ion exchange and acidic properties of clays. Clays as supports and catalysts. Clay-mediated organic reactions.
Automotive emission catalysis:
Air pollution, development of three-way catalysts, principles and operation of exhaust catalysts, surface chemistry, use of zeolites in exhaust emission control.
Bimetallic catalysts:
Preparation, characterization and special catalytic properties.
Surface science view of catalysis:
Methods of surface science studies, chemical transformations related to catalysis on oxides, mono- and bimetal surfaces, monitoring surface reactions by in-situ spectroscopic methods. Structure sensitive and insensitive reactions, oscillations in catalytic reactions, structure and bonding modifications, measuring heat of adsorption, single crystal adsorption calorimetry – a new development.
Active site – interpretation, surface frontier molecular orbitals, reaction kinetics, modeling of heterogeneous catalytic reactions. Catalytic reactors.
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