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Processes at the Surface of Catalysts - In the chemical industry, heterogeneous catalysis is of crucial importance to the manufacture of basic or fine chemicals, in catalytic converters of exhaust gas, or for the chemical storage of solar energy. Scientists at Karlsruhe Institute of Technology and Ruhr-Universitaet Bochum have developed a new infrared spectroscopy method to study processes at surfaces of oxides used as catalysts. Reference: M. Xu et al, 'The Surface Science Approach for Understanding Reactions on Oxide Powders: The Importance of IR Spectroscopy,' Angewandte Chemie, published online on April 5, 2012. DOI: 10.1002/ange.201200585.