Premium
Reactions at Surfaces: From Atoms to Complexity (Nobel Lecture)
Author(s) -
Ertl Gerhard
Publication year - 2008
Publication title -
angewandte chemie international edition
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 5.831
H-Index - 550
eISSN - 1521-3773
pISSN - 1433-7851
DOI - 10.1002/anie.200800480
Subject(s) - mechanism (biology) , chemistry , content (measure theory) , computer science , ammonia , work (physics) , catalysis , phenomenon , nanotechnology , chemical engineering , physics , materials science , organic chemistry , philosophy , epistemology , engineering , mathematics , thermodynamics , mathematical analysis
The spatio–temporal formation of patterns on the surface during a chemical reaction is one phenomenon that can now be understood and modeled thanks to the Nobel Prize winning research on the course of heterogeneous catalysis. The picture shows a pattern formed by a feedback mechanism during the oxidation of CO. Reactions that have been illuminated by this work include the synthesis of ammonia and the purification of waste gases.