Nanoscale thermodynamic aspects of plasma catalysis

•A review of thermodynamic aspects at the nanoscale relevant for plasma catalysis is presented.•Thermodynamic factors often overlooked in the plasma catalysis literature are highlighted.•The importance of the non-equilibrium plasma/catalyst interaction is stressed.

Plasma catalysis continues to gain increasing scientific interest, both in established fields like toxic waste abatement and emerging fields like greenhouse gas conversion into value-added chemicals. Attention is typically focused on the obtained conversion process selectivity, rates and energy efficiency. Much less attention is usually paid to the underlying mechanistic aspects of the processes that occur. In this contribution, we critically examine a number of fundamentally important nanoscale thermodynamic aspects of plasma catalysis, which are very relevant to these processes but so far have been overlooked or insufficiently covered in the plasma catalysis literature.

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