日本ゼオライト学会　刊行物 Publication of Japan Zeolite Association

To improve the energy efficiency of chemical reactors, it is essential to develop processes that can extract chemical energy with high efficiency from the input energy—processes characterized by high exergy. Electrocatalytic and photocatalytic systems can theoretically achieve high exergy because they drive reactions by manipulating the electrochemical potential of specific electrons and holes within the catalyst. In contrast, achieving high exergy in thermocatalytic systems requires a technology that selectively delivers thermal energy to catalytic active sites at the atomic level. Microwave heating can selectively interact with highly conductive metal nanoparticles and highly mobile ions within solid catalysts, thereby forming localized high-temperature fields at the microscale. In recent years, we have discovered that microwave irradiation of zeolite catalysts induces selective heating of metal ions within their micropores, leading to the formation of localized high-temperature fields at the atomic-scale. We have experimentally demonstrated the impact of this phenomenon on catalyst design and catalytic activity. In this article, we summarize our recent findings on the experimental validation of atomic-scale selective heating, based on in situ X-ray analysis techniques under microwave irradiation. Furthermore, we discuss the effects of atomic-scale selective heating on catalytic reactions and provide a future perspective on the design of selective heating at the atomic scale through zeolite structure control.