This book contains the papers and discussions from the sympo!,ium on "The Catalytic Chemistry of Nitrogen Oxides" held at the General Motors Research Laboratories on October 7-8, 1974. This symposium is the eighteenth in the annual series presented by the Research Laboratories. The topics for these symposiums have covered a broad range. Each topic was selected to be of intense current interest and of significant technical importance. There is no question that the subject of the 1974 Symposium satisfies these two criteria. The control of automotive nitrogen oxides has been perhaps the most difficult and controversial area of automotive emissions both in terms of what is necessary and in terms of what is technically feasible. This area has been a source of considerable discussion not only in the technical community but also in governments both in the U. S. and abroad. This meeting brought together scientists working in surface chemistry with engineers working on system design. It also brought together representatives of government, academia and industry. We feel that an important side benefit of the meeting was the improved understanding that was developed between these groups.
Participants came from Europe and Japan as well as Canada and the United States. The technical papers spanned the range from fundamental interactions of NO on surfaces through bench scale kinetic and mechanistic studies and ended with catalytic applications. Although the emphasis was on automotive NO removal, stack gas NO x x control was also covered.