Without Spectroscopy at the Beginning, Catalysis Research Proceeded in the Wrong Direction for More Than 100 Years

TL;DR

This paper reveals that catalysis occurs via electric fields generated by specific ions, which enable resonance between reactants, fundamentally changing the understanding of catalytic processes for over a century.

Contribution

It introduces a new theory that catalysis is driven by electric fields from ions with fractional charges, explaining catalyst non-consumption and reaction resonance.

Findings

Catalysis intermediates exist as a two-dimensional gas on surfaces.

Electric fields with fractional charges induce resonance between reactants.

Application to oxidation, chlorination, and exhaust reactions.

Abstract

A study by infrared spectroscopy of the physisorbed region of catalysis demonstrated that the intermediates of catalysis exist on the surface as a two dimensional gas. Data in the Atomic Energy Level tables show that of the thousands of positive ions tabulated only approximately one hundred have the low-lying excited states that produce surface electric fields with a fractional charge. The specific catalyst for a reaction has the electric field with the fractional charge which when imparted to the two reactants changes the frequency of the fields at the sites of reaction on each so that they are harmonically equal, that is their ratio is a power of two. When the two reactants meet in the electric field of the catalyst resonance occurs. It is during resonance that electrons are shared, paired and exchanged and bonds are broken and made. This analysis of catalysis explains the most extraordinary observation that a catalyst is Not consumed when used because the catalyst is the electric fields. These discoveries are applied to explain such diverse reactions as the oxidation and chlorination of carbon monoxide and the destruction of nitric oxide in automobile exhaust. The use of electric fields to produce reactions may have application not only in chemistry but in biology and mechanics as well.