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Abstract

Elemental carbon plays a role in catalysis in several modifications which are based upon the sp2 connectivity. Supports for catalytic materials, catalysts in its own right and carbonaceous deposits can be understood in their reactivity by applying the concept of chemical anisotropy. The paper will introduce this concept and describe several case studies in which carbon of different anisotropy will be investigated. The spectrum of defined carbon materials available for such studies has increased considerably in the last years with the advent of nanocarbons characterised by the incorporation of non-six-membered carbon rings (NSMCR) into the planar graphene network causing bending of the carbon sheets.

Catalytic test reactions used in this work are the selective oxidation of methanol, the decomposition of NO and the hydrogenation of CO. Metals supported in a geometrically defined way are copper and ruthenium. Methods of investigation are photoemission (UPS) and photoabsorption (XAS) spectroscopies, electron microscopy (TEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), temperature-programmed desorption (TPD) and temperature-programmed reaction spectroscopy (TPRS).