CO oxidation on Pt: Model discrimination using experimental bifurcation behavior

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Abstract
An experimental determination of the steady state behavior for the supported platinum catalyzed oxidation of carbon monoxide in a recycle reactor was performed. Steady state multiplicity was observed. The effects of the size of catalyst charge, feed flow rate, feed composition, and reactor temperature on the location of the boundaries of the steady state multiplicity region were determined. The sensitivity of these bifurcation points to variations in reactor parameters was used to discriminate among five reaction mechanisms. Only an elementary step model incorporating carbon monoxide self‐exclusion from the catalyst surface could quantitatively describe all observed steady state data. An explicit rate function based on this model is presented.