The Paul H. Emmett Award in Fundamental Catalysis is sponsored by the Grace Davison operating segment of W.R. Grace & Co. It is administered by The Catalysis Society and is awarded biennially in odd numbered years, generally at the North American meeting of The Catalysis Society, where the awardee will be asked to give a plenary lecture. The award consists of a plaque and a prize of $5,000. An additional $500 is available for otherwise unreimbursed travel expenses.
The purpose of the Award is to recognize and encourage individual contributions in the field of catalysis with emphasis on discovery and understanding of catalytic phenomena, proposal of catalytic reaction mechanisms and identification of and description of catalytic sites and species.
Selection of the Award winner will be made by a committee of renowned scientists and engineers appointed by the President of The North American Catalysis Society. Selection shall be made without regard for sex, nationality or affiIiation. The award winner must not have turned 46 on April 1st of the award year, thus nomination documents should indicate the age and birth date of the nominee. [The next award is the 2013 Award year for this Emmett Award (nominations due by September 30, 2012). Thus, nominees should not yet be 46 on April 1, 2013.) Posthumous awards will be made only when knowledge of the awardee’s death is received after announcement of the Award Committee’s decision. Nominations for the Award should present the nominee’s qualifications, accomplishments, birthdate, and biography. A critical evaluation of the significance of publications and patents should be made as well as a statement of the particular contribution(s) on which the nomination is based. Nomination documents should be submitted in one complete package to the President of the Society along with no more than two seconding letters.
Selection of the 2013 Emmett Award winner will be made by a committee of renowned scientists and engineers appointed by the President of The North American Catalysis Society. Nomination packages for the Award must be received by 30 September 2012.
All nomination packages (one ELECTRONIC COPY) for the Emmett Award should be should be sent to Enrique Iglesia, President, North American Catalysis Society; at iglesia@berkeley.edu. Receipt of any nomination, will be confirmed by an email message sent to any nominator.
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Pervasiveness of Surface Metal Oxide Phases In Mixed Oxide Catalysts
Israel E. Wachs
Lehigh University, Bethlehem, PA
Abstract — Mixed oxide catalytic materials possess two or more metal oxide components as found in bulk mixed metal oxides (stoichiometric oxides as well as solid solutions), polyoxo metalates (POMs), molecular sieves, zeolites, clays, hydrotalcites and supported metal oxides. Although it is now well established that two-dimensional surface metal oxide phases are present for supported metal oxides on traditional supports (e.g., Al2O3, TiO2, ZrO2, SiO2, etc.), it is not currently appreciated that such surface metal oxide species or phases are also present for other types of mixed oxides. For example, recent surface analyses have demonstrated that stoichiometric bulk mixed metal oxides also possess surface metal oxide phases that control their catalytic activity. For example, the catalytic active sites for methanol oxidation to formaldehyde over the bulk Fe2(MoO4)3 mixed oxide catalyst are surface MoOx species and not the bulk Fe2(MoO4)3 phase as previously thought in the catalysis literature. The nanometer sized clusters in POMs also possess surface species when a second metal oxide component is introduced (e.g., H3+xPW12-xMxO40). Deposition of metal oxides into molecular sieves, zeolites, clays and hydrotalcites also results in the metal oxide additive usually being present as surface metal oxide species that are the catalytic active sites for many redox and acid reactions. The formation of these surface metal oxide phases is driven by their low surface free energy and low Tammann temperature for many metal oxides of interest in catalysis (e.g., VOx, MoOx, CrOx, ReOx, WOx, etc.).