Activation by O of AgPd Alloy Catalysts for Ethylene Hydrogenation.

A composition spread alloy film (CSAF) spanning all of AgPd composition space, = 0 → 1, was used to study catalytic ethylene hydrogenation with and without the presence of O in the feed gas. High-throughput measurements of the ethylene hydrogenation activity of AgPd alloys were performed at 100 Pd compositions spanning = 0 → 1. The extent of ethylene hydrogenation was measured versus at reaction temperatures spanning = 300 → 405 K and inlet hydrogen partial pressures spanning = 70 → 690 Torr.

Enantiospecific Adsorption and Decomposition of D- and L-Asp Mixtures on Cu(643).

The study of molecular chirality is essential to understanding the fundamentals of enantiospecific chemical interactions that are ubiquitous in the biochemistry of life on Earth. At a molecular level, there is insufficient understanding of chiral recognition and enantiomer-enantiomer interaction (aggregation) of chiral molecules adsorbed on surfaces. Here, using enantiospecific isotopic labelling and surface sensitive techniques, we show that when the two enantiomers of chiral aspartic acid (Asp) are adsorbed on the naturally chiral Cu(643)R&S surfaces, they decompose enantiospecifically depending on the chirality of the surface.