Instabilities due to surface transformations of adsorbed species : the case of hydrocarbon oxidation

Abstract

In the present paper literature evidence on solid catalyzed oxidation reactions has been used to model their observed multipliciiy and instability behaviour. The results indicate that such behaviour could arise purely as a result of interactions among the adsorbed species on the catalyst. A simple mechanism like the Eley-Rideal mechanism, in which only one of the reactant species is adsorbed, has been considered, and it has been shown that instabilities can arise as a result of the adsorption behaviour of this species. The results also indicate that these instabilities are more fundamental since neither the kinetic nor the kinetic-cum-diffusion features of the system arc invoked to explain the dynamic behaviour observed in such systems.