The proceedings of the VIIth International Symposium on the Scientific Bases for the Preparation of Heterogeneous Catalysts, are in line with the general scope of this series of events. Emphasis in all Symposia has been on the scientific aspects of the preparation of new and industrial catalysts, or on new methods of preparation, rather than on the catalytic reactions in which such solids are ultimately used. In the present context, the catalytic event itself has only been considered as another, though often decisive, method of catalyst characterization.

This volume of Studies in Surface Science and Catalysis contains the Proceedings of the 9th International Symposium on the Scientific Bases for the Preparation of Heterogeneous Catalysts, held on the campus of the "Universit catholique de Louvain" (UCL) in Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, on September 10-14, 2006. This series of symposia was initiated in 1975 on a regular 4-year interval basis. The Symposium covered the following topics: key aspects in catalysts preparation, micro- and mesoporous supports, supported metal catalysts, structured catalysts, tailored zeolites, catalysis by bases, and catalysts for fuel production. These topics served as guidelines for the sessions both in the programs of oral communications (41 contributions including 7 keynote communications – one for each topic) and poster presentations (101 contributions). In addition, the opening invited lecture addressed the question of scaling-up high-throughput experimental approaches. * Contains a collection of the papers presented at the workshop

The proceedings of the IVth International Symposium on the ``Scientific Bases for the Preparation of Heterogeneous Catalysts'', are presented in this volume. Since its start in 1975, this series of Symposia has continued to attract increasing scientific attention. An appreciable proportion of the papers presented at this Fourth Symposium stemmed from industrial research laboratories. The symposium dealt with catalysts for selective oxidation, hydrodesulphurization, Fischer-Tropsch catalysis, methanol synthesis, metal supported catalysts and new trends in catalyst preparation.

The organizers of this Fifth Symposium maintained their initial objectives, namely to gather experts from both industries and universities to discuss the scientific problems involved in the preparation of heterogeneous catalysts, and to encourage as much as possible the presentation of research work on catalysts of real industrial significance. Another highlight of these symposia was to reserve a substantial part of the program to new developments in catalyst preparation, new preparation methods and new catalytic systems. The fact that chemical reactions which were hardly conceivable some years ago have become possible today through the development of appropriate catalytic systems proves that catalysis is in constant progress. The papers in this volume deal with studies of unit operations in catalyst preparation, catalyst preparation via the sol-gel route, preparation of catalysts from layered structures and pillaring of clays, preparation and modification of zeolite-based catalysts, carbon supported catalysts, preparation of oxidation catalysts and novel and unusual preparation methods.