AVS 50th International Symposium
    AVS 50th Anniversary Plenary Session Wednesday Sessions
       Session AP-WeM

Invited Paper AP-WeM1
Controlling Surface Reactions

Wednesday, November 5, 2003, 8:20 am, Room 310

Session: Surfaces, Processing, and Materials
Presenter: G. Ertl, Fritz-Haber-Institut der Max-Planck-Gesellschaft, Germany
Correspondent: Click to Email
Reactions at solid surfaces determine the mechanisms of heterogeneous catalysis and form hence the basis of numerous technologically important processes. Studies with well-defined surfaces enable detailed insights into the underlying elementary steps and their control down to atomic length and femtosecond time scales. Nonlinear kinetics coupled to adsorbate diffusion may give rise to phenomena of spatio-temporal self-organisation which may be affected by various feedback strategies. In this way not only options for improving catalytic activity, but also models for structure formation in living systems are established.