This blog post explores how catalysts—facilitators of chemical reactions—contribute to solving industrial, environmental, and energy challenges.
Catalysts are sometimes called magic stones. When aiming to produce desired substances from inexpensive, abundant raw materials through chemical processes, catalysts provide new reaction pathways with lower activation energy, helping the desired reaction occur easily, almost like magic. The importance of catalysts is widely applied across modern science and industry, and their role continues to expand. For instance, everyday items like plastics, fibers, and fuels cannot be efficiently produced without catalysts. For this reason, catalysts have become essential elements in industry and energy production.
Iron catalysts, in particular, enabled the synthesis of ammonia from hydrogen and nitrogen just before World War I, significantly contributing to increased food production. This process, known as the Haber-Bosch process, played a crucial role in boosting agricultural productivity as the world population rapidly increased. Furthermore, platinum catalysts are now used to purify exhaust gases. Platinum catalysts convert harmful gases emitted from automobile exhaust pipes into harmless substances, contributing to the reduction of air pollution. Thus, diverse catalysts have become core technologies for solving various problems related to food, clothing, shelter, energy, and the environment. Catalysts do not merely accelerate chemical reactions; they play a decisive role in solving numerous challenges humanity faces.
However, traditional industrial catalyst development involved repeated trial and error, often leading to serendipitous discoveries, hence the expression “the catalyst appeared.” This signifies that catalyst development is an uncertain process consuming significant time and resources. In this process, researchers randomly test various materials, sometimes accidentally discovering efficient catalysts. This approach is not only inefficient but also has the drawback of taking a long time to achieve the desired results.
To address these issues, catalyst design methods have been proposed, made possible by advances in surface chemistry technology and catalyst engineering. Catalyst design methods form a systematic framework that minimizes errors within the process, consisting of three main stages. The first stage involves selecting the target reaction, conducting thermodynamic reviews and economic feasibility assessments, and setting target values. If the reaction is deemed thermodynamically impossible or unlikely to achieve the desired economic level in this stage, the design process returns to the beginning. The second stage involves conceptualizing a reaction pathway model where reactants adsorb onto the catalyst surface and convert into products. Accurate understanding of the catalyst’s characteristics based on various theoretical analyses and experimental data is crucial here. Subsequently, an active material that facilitates reaction progress according to this model, a promoter that enhances the active material’s function, and a support that maintains a suitable catalyst form for the reaction are selected.
In the final stage, a catalyst sample is synthesized using the selected combination, tested, and its activity, selectivity, and durability are evaluated based on the results. If the results fall short of the target values, the process returns to the catalyst combination selection stage. Even if the target values are achieved, if the reaction does not proceed according to the established pathway model, the process reverts to the pathway model design stage. Catalyst design is completed when the target values are reached according to the established pathway model. This systematic approach significantly enhances the efficiency of catalyst development and enables the faster creation of required catalysts.
Future societies will prioritize the efficient use of energy resources and environmental conservation. Developing diverse catalysts will be essential to improve existing processes and meet environmental regulations. Particularly for improving existing processes, new catalysts are needed that can effectively produce desired materials while reducing reaction steps, and that can selectively and rapidly drive reactions at low temperatures. Such catalysts hold the potential to drive innovative changes across industries. For example, developing a catalyst that utilizes carbon dioxide as a feedstock to produce useful compounds could make a significant contribution to solving climate change issues.
Catalyst design methods are not merely solving current industrial problems; they are establishing themselves as core technologies for future sustainable development. This can be seen as a systematic approach to creating a magic stone that solves environmental and energy problems. Such technological advancements will play a crucial role in overcoming the various challenges facing humanity and can significantly enhance our quality of life.
