Platinum catalyst guide
Catalyst Active Sites
What chemists mean by active sites, ensembles and surface availability.
Industrial note: catalyst performance depends on the specific chemistry, reactor, feed and approved process conditions. This site explains system concepts rather than operating recipes.
What this topic covers
What chemists mean by active sites, ensembles and surface availability.
Core catalyst ideas
Catalytic activity is associated with specific surface locations and local atomic arrangements.
Not every platinum atom in a catalyst is equally accessible or equally active.
Supports, promoters, contaminants and particle structure can alter the population of useful sites.
System tradeoffs
Activity and selectivity are different performance dimensions, and neither alone defines a good industrial catalyst.
Performance evidence
Catalyst value comes from the total process outcome rather than the amount of platinum present.
Lifecycle perspective
Chemical-process conditions are application-specific and are intentionally excluded from this site.