Mechanochemical and Mechanocatalytic Reactions in Ball Mills
From Voodoo to Science

Mechanochemical synthesis allows in various cases the synthesis of materials that are otherwise difficult to access or complex to synthesize, such as rare earth metal hydrides, corundum with high surface areas, or supported metal catalysts. For such studies, milling vessels were equipped with various additional features, such as cryo-capabilities and remote sensors for pressure and temperature to follow the processes in the mill in more detail. Mechanochemistry can also be used for catalytic reactions, such as the depolymerization of cellulose and lignocellulose, which proceeds fast and with high yield in ball mills. Moreover, running catalytic gas phase reactions under milling can lead to reactivity increases by several orders of magnitude, as proven for several cases.

The presentation will highlight the synthesis of interesting materials by milling and the opportunities in carrying out gas phase reactions under milling.