Effect of surface acoustic waves on activity in heterogeneous catalysis

A synopsis of the recent developments in acoustically influencing and controlling gas-surface interactions is presented. The cleaning effect of ultrasound and its surface activation play an important role for the sonochemical enhancement of reactivity in chemical processes involving solid and liquid phases. So far, there have only been a few studies on the effects of surface acoustic waves on surface chemical reactions under high-vacuum conditions by the application of piezoelectric surface acoustic wave transducers. Very recently, metal films deposited between InterDigital Transducer (IDT) electrodes on a LiNbO₃ substrate have shown a significant inerease in catalytic activity during surface acoustic excitation and Edge-Bonded Transducers (EBT) with a metal single crystal as a substrate have been used to acoustically influence the rate in the oscillatory reaction for CO oxidation. Tunable narrowband surface acoustic excitation is anticipated to be an efficient route to control catalytic processes, and in our work this approach is being used to investigate the physical basis of this process.