Surface catalytic reactions assisted by gas phase molecules: activation ofreaction intermediates

This paper attempts to review our recent work to provide an aspect of catal ysis "surface catalytic reactions assisted by gas phase molecules", describ ing the previous representative results and also presenting new data. In th is concept, reaction intermediates are activated by gas phase molecules whi ch adsorb weakly or are undetectable at the surface. The examples are the e thanol dehydrogenation on Nb/SiO2, the water gas shift reactions on MgO, Zn O and Rh/CeO2, and the NO-CO reaction on Co/Al2O3. (C) 2000 Elsevier Scienc e B.V. All rights reserved.