  Kinetics of model catalytic processes proceeding on inhomogeneous surfaces is
studied. We employ an extended mean-field model that takes into account surface
inhomogeneities. The influence of surface diffusion of adsorbent on the
kinetics of the catalytic process is investigated. It is shown that diffusion
is responsible for differences in the reaction rate of systems with different
arrangements of active sites. The presence of cooperative effects between
inactive and active sites is demonstrated and the conditions when these effects
are important are discussed. We show that basic catalytic phenomena on
nonuniform surfaces can be studied with mean-field modeling methods.
