On the Use of Silicon Nitride in Catalysis

Silicon nitride has very good thermal and chemical stability, as well as high thermal conductivity compared to oxide materials, which are commonly used as catalyst supports. In exothermic reactions working at high temperature, this facilitates heat transfer and thus limits the formation of local hot spots, which are often responsible for structural modification of the support in addition to sintering of active phases. However, it is only recently that this material has been considered for application as a catalyst support for high temperature reactions. It is now established that silicon nitride can be a good support for catalytically active phases. Its range of application is continually expanding (e.g., partial/total oxidation of methane, hydrogenation and dehydrogenation reactions, photocatalysis, base catalysis, etc.).