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Unifying views on catalyst deactivation

Nature Catalysis volume 5, pages 854–866 (2022)Cite this article

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Abstract

Berzelius stated that catalysts remain unaltered in their reaction environment. However, catalyst deactivation always becomes noticeable at certain timescales, frequently hindering commercial viability. Strikingly, a literature analysis reveals that stability remains secondary in catalyst design, and that each catalysis subdiscipline addresses it in an isolated manner. To reverse this situation, this Review identifies over 120 terms that describe deactivation in the literature for distinct catalyst types (heterogeneous, homogeneous and biocatalysts) and driving forces (thermo-, photo- and electrocatalysis). We classify them into 14 generalized modes that cause either loss, blockage or modification of the catalyst components. This unified framework guides our analysis, providing insights into the prevalence of deactivation mechanisms and commonalities across subdisciplines. Limited fundamental knowledge reflects a low adoption of operando methods that are crucial for studying the underlying dynamic processes. By linking the generalized modes to property alterations, we highlight multi-technique approaches to understand and mitigate catalyst deactivation across relevant scales.

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Fig. 1: The modest and fragmented attention to catalyst stability in the literature.
Fig. 2: Generality of deactivation modes.
Fig. 3: Prevalence of deactivation modes by driving force.
Fig. 4: Prevalence of deactivation modes by catalyst type.
Fig. 5: Tools in deactivation studies.
Fig. 6: Representative applications of operando tools by catalyst type.
Fig. 7: Scope of in situ and operando tools for analysing catalyst deactivation.
Fig. 8: Tools for tackling deactivation across scales.

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Acknowledgements

We acknowledge financial support from the Swiss National Science Foundation through the National Center of Competence in Research (NCCR) Catalysis (grant 180544).

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  1. Institute for Chemical and Bioengineering, Department of Chemistry and Applied Biosciences, ETH Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland

    Antonio J. Martín, Sharon Mitchell, Cecilia Mondelli, Shibashish Jaydev & Javier Pérez-Ramírez

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J.P.-R. conceived and coordinated the study. A.J.M., S.M., C.M. and J.P.-R. wrote the article. A.J.M., S.M., C.M. and S.J. conducted the literature search and all the authors analysed and conceptualized the results.

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Correspondence to Javier Pérez-Ramírez.

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Martín, A.J., Mitchell, S., Mondelli, C. et al. Unifying views on catalyst deactivation. Nat Catal 5, 854–866 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41929-022-00842-y

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