Catalysis of the Future: Trends in Structures, Processes and Applications

Dear Colleagues,

Heterogeneous catalysis plays a key role in addressing the world’s most concerning challenges. In recent years, the catalysis community has witnessed a trend that the boundaries between conventional thermal catalysis, photocatalysis and electrocatalysis are becoming less and less clear, as reflected in the common characterization techniques and concepts in the recent literature.

In general, the paradigm of catalysis research can be divided into three themes: development of new catalysts, studying the reaction mechanism and reaction engineering for a target process. Synthesizing catalysts with new formulations or new structures can always stimulate the discovery of new phenomena/knowledge in catalysis research. From a fundamental point of view, identifying the structures of solid catalysts at molecular and atomic level is vital for understanding the working mechanism and rational design of catalytic materials for desired reactions. This trend is reflected in the style of recent catalysis publications, in which multiple advanced characterization techniques are usually combined to reveal the structures of the active sites at atomic and molecular levels. In terms of the practical applications, the innovations in materials synthesis and reaction engineering have shown great potential in addressing the global challenges, such as climate change and the transition of energy sources from fossil fuels to renewable systems.

In this Special Issue (Catalysis of the Future: Trends in Structures, Processes and Applications), we will collect the works that present insights into the nature of the active sites in solid catalysts and novel applications in energy and environment. Specifically, works related to precise control of the catalyst’s structure/morphology/composition, advanced characterization of solid catalysts by microscopy and spectroscopy tools, innovation/optimization in important catalytic processes by reaction engineering and use of renewable energy/resources for production of chemicals/materials are welcome for submission to the journal for publication in this Special Issue.

Prof. Dr. Avelino Corma
Prof. Dr. Lichen Liu
Guest Editors

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