Although the excess temperature of the active sites in supported catalysts during catalysis could be several hundred degrees higher than that measured by a thermocouple,fi1 theoretical and experimental results have been contradictory. Indirect evidence may come from cataiyst sinteringl2I (attributed to local heating and consequent Pt mobility during oxidation-reduction) and the fact that in CO oxidation a Pd/Si02 catalyst without external heating remained at 150-190 K above the temperature of the reactant stream.[31 Unfortunately, 150-K temperature excursions of Pt/Si02 are probably representative of the support rather than the active sites (see Ref. 141).lnfrared emission can, however, provide direct evidence of the temperature of the more important supported phase if at the relevant wavelengths the "black" active metal emits more strongly than the support. It has been shown that (1) the temperature of Ni crystallites exhibits an average transient increase of 165 K above that of the silica support within 3 s on O2 chernisorption,['I (2) during CO oxidation at 573 K the temperature of Pd is at least 190 K above that of its SiO, support,[31 and ( 3 ) temperature variations of 28 K exist across Pt/A1203 catalysts during H2 oxidation.[" However, it is now necessary to concentrate on temperature profiles produced under flow conditions using porous impregnated catalysts, operating in flow reactors with residence times of a few seconds, at partial pressures close to the stoichiometric composition of reactant^ '^] and to consider their significance for analysis of the kinetics of heterogeneous reactions.@I We report here on the Pt/Si02-catalyzed oxidation of H, and hydrogenation of cyclohexene.This particular catalyst (see Experimenfal Procedure) was selected because (1) the size of its pores might be large enough to reduce pore diffusion limitation, (2) the support would increase thermal and chemical isolation of the Pt active sites, (3) the activity of Pt was high and well known in the reactions selected, and (4) the Pt was finely dispersed (i.e., hydrogen chemisorption revealedfIol that it existed as 4-nm particles) throughout the internal pore structure of the support with sizes much smaller than the support pore size, thereby possibly allowing relatively ready access of reactants and release of products.Platinum is one of the most active metals for H2 oxidation"" (-AH=241.8 kJ/mol H20) and has been studied in the unsupported'"' and supported['31 states. On supported catalysts a thermal feedback from the heat generated by the reaction may affect the chemical rate and cause oscillations and bi~tability."~. Interestingly, the higher activity for smaller SiO,-supported Pt particles during H2 oxidation"31 could not be explained by their heating up more than the larger ones. In cyclohexene hydrogenation (-AH= 117.8 kJ/molf161) supported and unsupported Pt have been found["-201 to show structure insensitivity (i.e., the turnover numbers remained constant at 2-3 cyclohexane molecules produced per Pt site per second12'] a...