Theoretical aspects of surface reactions

A short review is given of our present understanding of the trends in the chemisorption energies and activation energies for dissociation of simple gas molecules on the transition metals. The effect of adsorbed alkali atoms on the activation energy for dissociation is also discussed. This is then used to explain the trends in activity along the transition metal rows and the promoting effect of K for the ammonia synthesis reaction. The basis for the description is the development of a kinetic model for the ammonia synthesis which can describe quantitatively the macroscopic kinetics of a commercial catalyst under industrial conditions. The model relates the reaction rate directly to the properties of the chemisorbed reactants, intermediates and product as measured for model single crystal systems under ultrahigh vacuum conditions.