The heterogeneous catalytic reaction 2A + B2 → 2AB exactly solved on a small lattice

Abstract

We studied a kinetic model of a generic heterogeneous catalytic reaction 2A* þ B* 2 → 2ABg. This reaction includes the steps of adsorption and desorption of reactants A and B2, where B2 requires two neighboring adsorption sites to be adsorbed. We solved the model exactly and without any restriction on a 2 x 2 lattice. Despite the reduced number of sites employed, the solution shows the main general features observed by simulating the mechanism on a large N x N lattice. This result should encourage the search for an analytical solution as a reliable form to unravel details of a chemical reaction prior to performing numerical simulations.