This book deals with adsorption and catalysis on the surface of
transition elements and their compounds, many of which are in- teresting
because of their particular electronic structure. The authors have
worked through a vast body of experimental evi- dence on the structure
and properties of surfaces of transition metals and relevant oxides.
Consideration is given mostly to simple (as opposed to mixed) oxides of
transition elements, to common metals and to the adsorption of simple
gases. A great deal of attention is paid to the nature of active surface
sites responsible for chemisorption and catalytic transformations. The
description relies mainly on the simplified ligand-field theory, which,
however, proves quite satisfactory for predicting the adsorptive and
catalytic activity of species. In many cases simple systems were
explored with the aid of novel techniques, and it is only for such
systems that the mechanism of the ele- mentary act of adsorption and
catalysis can be given adequate treatment. The present monograph has
emerged from our earlier work in Russian, which appeared in the Khimiya
Publishing House (Mos- cow) in 1981. This English edition has, however,
been revised completely to broaden its scope and to include more recent
a- chievements. For fruitful discussions the authors are grateful to
A.A.