Tourism and sustainability in the Mediterranean: issues and implications

Due to their fragile economies and infrastructures, research on Mediteranean islands reveals a great deal about the impact of tourism. This volume focuses on issues specific to tourism in the Mediterranean, with contributors from the United States, the United Kingdon and continental Europe. This chapter focuses on the tourism and sustainability in the Mediterranean

Theoretical Aspects of Methane Chemisorption on MgO Surfaces. Modeling of Impurityinduced Trapping of a Hole, Surface Defects and Site Dependence of Methane Chemisorption on (MgO)9,12 Clusters

The geometry and energetics of CH4 chemisorption on various ion pair sites of the bare, Schottky defected and Li-doped (MgO)9 and (MgO)12 cluster models have been investigated at the MNDO-PM3 and modified ASED-MO levels of theory. The local environment (coordination geometry) of Mgnc and Onc ions at the chemisorption site (n is the coordination number of the respective ion site) was shown to be of crucial importance in modulating the mechanism and the energetic profile of the methane activation process. The computed chemisorption energy follows the trend: Mg3c2+(corner) > Mg4c2+(edge) > Mg5c2+(face). Depending on the morphology of the catalyst and the reaction conditions the mechanism of methane activation by MgO catalysts can be described either by a homolytic or heterolytic chemisorption process. The homolytic chemisorption of methane is promoted by a hole or open-shell catalysis onto electrophilic oxide ion reactive centres of the catalyst exhibiting a high radical character. In order to effect the open-shell catalytic process, electronic holes in the topmost filled O 2p band of the catalyst may be generated by doping the catalyst with Li or introducing cationic vacancies in the crystal lattice. On the other hand, methane can also dissociate heterolytically at low-coordinated neighbouring Mgnc and Onc ion pair sites of the MgO catalyst in a more selective and stereospecific process. Furthermore, depending on the reaction conditions, methane heterolytic chemisorption can afford C1 oxygenates, such as formaldehyde and methanol, rather than C2 hydrocarbon derivatives. In both chemisorption processes, the catalytic activity increases with increasing concentration of the electrophilic oxide ion sites acquiring low coordination numbers. Catalysts exhibiting a high number of defect corner sites and high porosity are predicted to be the most reactive towards methane activation.Journal of the Chemical Society, Faraday Transaction

Theoretical aspects of methane dissociation and hydroxylation on metal oxide diatomics in the gas phase

The selective activation of C-H bond in methane as an initial stage for subsequent formation of either Cx and higher hydrocarbon derivatives or CI oxygenates using gas phase "�superbasic"� metal oxide diatomics (e.g. LiO, BeO, AlO, MgO and CdO) has been studied theoretically at the PM3 and MNDO levels. The most important parts of the potential energy hypersurfaces, along with the fully optimized structures of the transition states and the energetics of the reactions are analyzed and discussed. All reactions were found to be exothermic, but with relatively high barriers following the trend: Cd0 x Be0 < LiO z MgO = AlO. Both reactivity and selectivity of the metal oxide diatomics are strongly correlated with the oxygen atom"™s electro or nucleophilic character which in turn is determined by the nature of the metal atom.Journal of Molecular Catalysis a-Chemica