The rules of iron catalyst selforganization are dominated by alkali promoting, as controlling iron phase composition and the relative rate of reaction of on-site-carbon for FT-monomer formation, Fe-carbide formation and carbon-phase formation鈥攖hese as in relation to primary and secondary formation of olefins and paraffins.
With cobalt as catalyst, selforganization for creating different kinds of active sites for primary and secondary reactions appears essential, and is explained via the observed selectivity changes. A dynamic structure of active sites is proposed. Probability of linear chain prolongation is merely carbon number dependent, but probability of growth with chain branching declines exponentially with carbon number, indicating increasing spatial constraints on the reaction. Selectivity changes are mechanistically understood from the ordered complexity of product composition.