Magnetically Induced Catalysis: Definition, Advances, and Potential

The rapidly growing importance of electrification in the chemical industry opens room for disruptive innovations regarding energy input into catalytic processes. Energy efficiency and dynamics of renewable energy supplies represent important challenges, but the design of catalytic systems to cope with such new frameworks may also stimulate the discovery of new catalyst materials and reaction pathways. In this context, many opportunities arise when catalysts are activated in a rapid, localized, and energy-efficient manner. Among the various concepts to achieve adaptivity in catalysis, magnetic induction heating applied directly at the catalyst or in vicinity of the active site has gained increasing attention recently. In this Scientific Perspective, we provide a coherent framework to the emerging field of catalysis using magnetic fields—and in particular alternating current magnetic fields—to activate catalytic materials and define it as magnetically induced catalysis. Promising approaches and selected examples are described to illustrate the scientific concept and to highlight its broad potential for innovation in catalysis from laboratory to industrial scale.