Concentration forcing of catalytic surface rate processes: Part I. Isothermal carbon monoxide oxidation over supported platinum

Periodic feed switching between carbon monoxide/argon and oxygen/argon mixtures to a gradientless reactor has been found to significantly increase the average reaction rate as compared to the steady state rate, when the time averaged feed concentrations in both cases are stoichiometric. The rate enhancement achieved during periodic reactor operation is attributed to the attainment of more desirable surface concentrations on the platinum catalyst which dramatically increase the surface rate processes leading to carbon dioxide production.