Remote sensing of the flux responses of a gas-solid catalytic micro-reactor

A new method for measuring the rates of heterogeneous catalytic and possibl y other gas-solid reactions is introduced in this paper. It is based on mea suring the "flux response" of a reactor. The flux response of a continuous- flow sas-solid reactor is defined as the way the net rate at which molecule s leave the reactor changes when some input, or other, variable is changed. The flux response depends on the combined effect of absorption, reaction a nd desorption of the gases in the reactor. Apparatus for measuring the flux response is described. The apparatus design is based on that of apparatus used in the sorption-effect method for measuring gas adsorption. Modificati ons to that apparatus to make it suitable for investigating the flux respon se of a catalytic micro-reactor are reported. Flux-response experiments hav e been carried out using the catalytic decomposition of methanol over plati nized alumina as the demonstration reaction. The flux response measurements were complemented by mass spectrometric analysis of the reactor effluent. The experiments reported here confirm that the flux response can disclose s ome of the detail of the adsorption-reaction-desorption mechanism of hetero geneous catalysis. Conversions are calculated from the experimental flux re sponses. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.