05
T
he production of ammonia by the cat-
alytic combination of hydrogen and
nitrogen was considered by Rideal and
Taylor in 1926 “as one of the greatest tri-
umphs of modern physical and engineering
chemistry”. These authors provide in their
book “Catalysis in Theory and Practice” a
detailed account of what they believe were
the signi cant events prior t o the develop-
ment of the Haber-Bosch process reported
at a meeting in Karlsruhe in 1910. A brief
summary of these is as follows; more details
can be found in the contribution by Kenzi
Tamaru in the book “Catalytic Ammonia syn-
thesis; Fundamentals and Practice” edited by
Jennings (1991).
In 1865 Deville observed that ammonia
decomposition, in the presence of a spark dis-
charge was never complete indicating revers-
ibility 2NH
3
→ N
2
+ 3H
2
. Matignon at the
Inaugural Session of the Societé de Chimie
Development of the industrial relevance
of catalysis and its physiochemical basis
“We are gifted with the power of imagination and by this power we can
enlighten the darkness which surrounds the world of the senses. Bounded
and conditioned by co-operant reason, imagination becomes the mightiest
instrument of the physical discoverer”.
J. Tyndall
This was the period when industrial catalysis and the formulation of the relevant physiochemical
principles developed simultaneously. The excellence of chemistry in Germany was recognised
through Nobel Prizes being awarded to Nernst, Haber, Bosch and Ostwald all of whom had made
signi cant contributions to heterogeneous catalysis which h ad, t o some extent, been stimulated by
the requirements of the First World War. The synthesis and oxidation of ammonia dominated the
scene but also saw the emergence of catalytic hydrogenation through the work of Sabatier and
also Fischer-Tropsch catalysis. Fundamental ideas on adsorption were put forward by Polanyi in
Hungary, Langmuir in the USA and Eucken in Germany with Langmuir being awarded the Nobel
Prize in 1932 for ‘Discoveries and Inventions in Chemistry’. The concept of ‘activation energy’ was
enunciated by Arrhenius, Nobel Prize winner in 1903.
Concern was being raised concerning the nature of ‘active centres’ and the concept of activated
adsorption was introduced by Rideal and Taylor while others such as Langmuir and J.K. Roberts
paid attention to the preparation of “clean” surfaces with Otto Beeck making signi cant contribu-
tions through the use of evaporated metal lms as substrates.
(1860 - 1940)
Fritz Haber