CATALYSIS: THE GUIDE OF LIFE 



101 



Scale 

 1 2 3 4 5 



IhiiImiiIiiiiIiiiiIiiiiIii I il mil lllll II lillllllA, 



Figure 14. Projection of nickel phthalocyanine along the b axis, which makes an 

 angle of 44.2° with the molecular plane (/. M. Robertson). Each contour line repre- 

 sents a density increment of one electron per A. 2 , except the nickel atom where the 

 increment is five electrons per A. 2 for each line. The one-electron line is dotted. 

 (From paper in "Colloid Chemistry." Vol. 5, by J. Alexander, Reinhold Publishing 

 Corp., N. Y.) 



From a standpipe about 200 feet high, a claylike powdered catalyst 

 cascades into a stream of vaporized oil at the rate of about 2 carloads 

 a minute, and the torrid, oily duststorm swirls like a gas into a reactor 

 vessel where, at the huge catalyst surface, there take place the complex 

 chemical transformations termed "cracking." The cracked reaction 

 products are separated from the now blackened, carbon-coated catalyst, 

 which then falls into a stream of incoming air and is carried to a 



