Selectivity in Catalysis by Alloys

Abstract Historically, the interest in catalysis by alloys shows periods of growth and periods of stagnation. The first period of growing interest was in the thirties when alloys were used to disclose the role of the order-disorder phenomena (see, e.g., Refs. 1–3). In the fifties alloys were used intensively to establish the role of the electronic structure of solids in catalysis (see, e.g., Refs 3–5). It was a period of very fast development in catalysis, the penetration of theoretical and experimental physics into catalysis initiated by the authors of The Electronic Theory of Catalysis (Dowden 5, Rienäcker 2, Schwab 6, Eley TI, Wolkenstein [a, Hauffe 9, and others), it brought much news and the experimental material on catalysis increased substantially. However, as far as the research on alloys itself is concerned, its success was debatable. The President of the IVth Congress on Catalysis in 1968, when closing the congress said about this period: "These systems (i.e. alloys) have been a dangerous temptation for many scientists, so that we had a rather dismal situation, from the point of view of evaluating the effectiveness of catalytic measurements, in that almost every researcher obtains results contradicting the data of those preceding him" [Kinet. Catal. (USSR), 10, 1 (1969), p. 71.