The Sabatier Principle Illustrated by Catalytic H₂O₂ Decomposition on Metal Surfaces

Heterogeneous catalysis is important in today’s industry. Hence, it is imperative to introduce students to this field and its tools. A new way of introducing one of these tools, the Sabatier principle, via a laboratory exercise is presented. A volcano plot is constructed for the well-known heterogeneous H2O2 catalytic decomposition reaction on various metal foils. The activity per catalyst surface area versus the computationally calculated binding energy of OH groups on the catalysts is plotted. The OH group is identified as the only surface intermediate in an intuitive reaction mechanism, and hence, it is the relevant reactivity parameter. From the calculated binding energies and the reaction mechanism, the volcano peak position is inferred. This work is relevant to introductory levels of chemistry in advanced high school classes and initial levels of university.