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2.2 Historical Aspects 41

Table 2.4 ( Continued )

Scientist(s) name(s) Breakthrough Year
H. P. Gregor Invention and development of chelating polymers. 1952–1971
K. W. Pepper
L. R. Morris
M. A. Peterson, H. Deelopment of cellulose ion e v xchangers. 1956
A. Sober
1956-58 Preparation and studies of nonsiliceous inorganic ion 1956
exchangers—insoluble salts, heteropolyacids
F. Helfferich Foundations laid for the new theoretical treatment of 1959
xchange. ion e
T. R. E. Kressmann Invention and development of isoporous ion-e xchange 1960
J. R. Millar resins.
J. Weiss Thermally regenerable ion-exchange resins and w ater 1964
desalination based on them.

clay plates many millennia ago. A few examples of the utilization of catalysis in ancient
wing: civilizations are the follo

• 6000 B.C.—beer brewing by malting procedure (malt enzymes)
• 3000 B.C.—wine making by fermentatiersion of grape juice sugars e con v v
• 2000 B.C.—making alcohol by fermentation of various carbohydrate sources
• 800 B.C.—cheese making by casein hydrolysis with calf stomach extract (calf
rennet)

The phenomenon under consideration was studied systematically in the beginning of
the 19th century. In 1815, Davy performed experiments that dealt with catalytic com-
,
bustion on platinum gauzes. The term “catalysis”, ho was introduced by Berzelius v er we
in 1836. He first defined a catalyst (Berzelius, 1836) as “a compound, which increases
the rate of a chemical reaction, but which is not consumed during the reaction. This def- ”
inition was later amended by Ostwald (1853–1932) in 1895 to ine the possibility olv v
that small amounts of the catalyst are lost in the reaction or that the catalytic activity is
slowly decreased: “A catalyst is a substance that increases the rate of approach to equi-
librium of a chemical reaction without being substantially consumed in the reaction. It ”
was more than a century after Berzelius’ first definition that Marcel Prettre’s introduced
the notion of yield: “The catalyst is a substance that increases the rate of a chemical
transformation without modifying the yield, and that is found intact among the final
products of the reaction. ”
It is fascinating that een today heterogeneous catalysis still remains an empirical sci-
v
,
ence. Although the application of catalysts in the chemical industry is a fact for at least 150
years, the e el did not v xperimental techniques for in estigation of catalysis at the atomic le v
become routine until less than 25 years ago; the computational techniques are e en v
v
younger and hae hardly become routine yet. For this reason, a vast amount of empirical
w
v
knowledge exists and aaits systematic inA short history of heterogeneous
estigation.
catalysis is presented in Table 2.5.