Supported Metal Carbonyl Clusters: Decomposition to Metals and Reactivity

Abstract

The growing interest in the last 15 years for organometallic chemistry and homogeneous catalysis with organometallic catalysts supported experimental and theoretical evidence for strong analogies between organometallic chemistry or homogeneous catalysis and surface catalysis. In Table 1 some of the relevant contributions, dealing with this particular subject, are chronologically evidenced. Some logical and often evident similarities between the processes of coordination and chemisorption have been first pointed out; they have produced some new ideas on the electronic origin of the catalytic effects and on the mechanisms of surface catalysis. However for a long period the homogeneous reactions were only molecular processes in which one or two metal centers were involved in the catalytic activation, whilst it was quite obvious even at that time that on metal surfaces aggregates of few metals were involved in many catalytic processes.