title: The nature of the active site in heterogeneous metal catalysis.
abstract: This tutorial review, of relevance for the surface science and heterogeneous catalysis communities, provides a molecular-level discussion of the nature of the active sites in metal catalysis. Fundamental concepts such as "Brønsted-Evans-Polanyi relations" and "volcano curves" are introduced, and are used to establish a strict partitioning between the so-called "electronic" and "geometrical" effects. This partitioning is subsequently employed as the basis for defining the concept "degree of structure sensitivity" which can be used when analyzing the structure sensitivity of catalytic reactions.
authors.affiliation: Center for Atomic-scale Materials Design (CAMD), Department of Physics, Building 307, Technical University of Denmark, DK-2800 Kgs. Lyngby, Denmark. norskov@fysik.dtu.dk
authors.forename: Jens K
authors.initials: JK
authors.lastname: Nørskov
authors.forename: Thomas
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Bligaard
authors.forename: Britt
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Hvolbaek
authors.forename: Frank
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Abild-Pedersen
authors.forename: Ib
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Chorkendorff
authors.forename: Claus H
authors.initials: CH
authors.lastname: Christensen