Page 8 - Principles of Catalyst Development
P. 8

PREFACE  TO  THE  SERIES







            Catalysis  is  important academically and  industrially.  It plays  an essential
            role  in  the  manufacture  of a  wide  range  of products,  from  gasoline  and
            plastics to fertilizers and herbicides, which would otherwise be unobtainable
            or prohibitively  expensive.  There  are  few  chemical- or oil-based  material
            items  in  modern  society  that  do  not  depend  in  some  way  on  a  catalytic
            stage  in  their manufacture.  Apart from  manufacturing  processes  catalysis
            is finding other important and ever increasing uses; for example, successful
            applications of catalysis in the control of pollution and its  use in environ-
            mental control are certain to  increase in  the future.
                The  commercial  importance  of catalysis  and  the  diverse  intellectual
            challenges of catalytic phenomena have stimulated study by a broad spec-
            trum  of scientists,  including chemists,  physicists,  chemical  engineers,  and
            materials scientists.  Increasing research activity over the years has brought
            deeper  levels  of understanding,  and  these  have  been  associated  with  a
            continually growing amount of published material. As recently as sixty years
            ago,  Rideal  and  Taylor  could  still  treat  the  subject  comprehensively  in  a
            single volume, but by the 1950s  Emmett required six volumes, and now no
            conventional multivolume text can cover the whole of catalysis in any depth.
            In  view  of this  situation,  we  felt  there  was  a  need  for  a  collection  of
            monographs,  each  one  of which  would  deal  at  an  advanced  level  with  a
            selected topic so as to build a catalysis reference library. This is  the aim of
            the present series,  Fundamental  and  Applied Catalysis.
                These  books in  the series  will  deal  with  particular techniques used in
            the  study  of catalysts  and  catalysis;  these  will  cover  the  scientific  basis  of
            the technique, details of its practical applications, and examples of its usefulness.
           The  volumes  concerned  with  an  industrial  process  or a  class  of catalysts
            will  provide information  on the fundamental science of the topic,  the use of
            the process or catalysts, and engineering aspects.  For example, the inaugural
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