Ketene as a gas phase intermediate in acetic acid ketonization on TiO(2).

Ketene is directly evidenced as a mobile gas-phase intermediate in acetic acid ketonization on faceted TiO2 (101), correlating with acetone formation.

• Why it matters: Reactive intermediates can govern heterogeneous catalytic steps, but ketene’s role in this debated mechanism has lacked direct experimental proof.
• What they did: Layered TiO2 (101) nanoparticles of controlled thickness were used to track ketene from surface acetate via desorption–readsorption, while surface science and reactor studies measured ketene–acetone correlation.
• The result: Ketene and acetone production correlate with how deeply particle layers are saturated, and calculations support low-barrier coupling pathways converging on a common β-ketoacid intermediate.

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