“…Stable carbonate intermediates have been observed on the surface in several IR studies of real catalysts (191,358,375,377,403,421,422,430,473). Originally thought to be a key part of the mechanism (191,473), the prevailing view today is that CO3 is a spectator species in the reaction (3,4,496) and that it can even act to deactivate the catalyst by blocking reaction sites (382,467,(500)(501)(502)(503). However, the transition could very well be a non-symmetrical carbonate such that preferential cleavage of the O-OCO bond is conceivable as has been proposed by both theorists and experimentalists (226,247,474).…”