Homologation reactions of alkanes on transition-metal surfaces

A symposia; a combination of expts. using TAP, and isotopic labeling of hydrocarbons using 11C over metal catalysts has provided useful information about the formation of carbon surface species and their activity. The formation of non-reactive surface species following high temp. CO or CH4 adsorption was shown to be more likely at high temps., and that this was a fairly rapid process. The activation energy for C-C coupling reactions was found to be higher following promotion of a Ru catalyst with V. Differences in n-/iso-ratio between labeled and non-labeled products indicated that different reaction pathways led to the formation of n-hexane and iso-hexan