## fractional selectivity

in catalysis
https://doi.org/10.1351/goldbook.F02496
The term selectivity (S) is used to describe the relative rates of two or more competing reactions on a catalyst. Such competition includes cases of different reactants undergoing simultaneous reactions or of a single reactant taking part in two or more reactions. For the latter case, S may be defined in two ways. The first of these defines a fractional selectivity, S F, for each product by the equation $S_{\text{F}}=\frac{\xi _{i}}{\sum \xi _{i}}$ The second defines relative selectivities, S R, for each pair of products by $S_{\text{R}}=\frac{\xi _{i}}{\xi _{j}}$ In each case, ξ i and ξ j are the rates of increase of the extent of reactionsi and j respectively, i.e. $\xi _{i}=\frac{\mathrm{d}\xi _{i}}{\mathrm{d}t}$ and $\xi _{j}=\frac{\mathrm{d}\xi _{j}}{\mathrm{d}t}$ where ξ i and ξ j are the extents of reactions i and j respectively.
Source:
PAC, 1976, 46, 71. 'Manual of Symbols and Terminology for Physicochemical Quantities and Units - Appendix II. Definitions, Terminology and Symbols in Colloid and Surface Chemistry. Part II: Heterogeneous Catalysis' on page 81 (https://doi.org/10.1351/pac197646010071)