Multi-Technique In Situ Approach Towards the Study of Catalytic Solids at Work Using Synchrotron Radiation

Abstract

Full control of catalytic processes is one of the main goals of material science research today since nearly all industrial chemical processes utilize a catalyst at some point. Understanding how catalysts work is crucial in order to guide breakthroughs in rational catalyst design. Therefore, the study of chemical events taking place in catalytic solids during their preparation or under reaction conditions is crucial. This enables us to identify and understand the important steps in their lifetime, to gain insight into the formation/activation of active sites, their behavior during reaction as well as deactivation and modes of regeneration. This information can be obtained by measuring under “in situ” conditions – meaning that the systems have been studied under the appropriate atmosphere, temperature and pressure required for their industrial application. However, there is no single technique that can provide all the information required [1,2]. This has forced us to perform parallel studies or to intelligently combine techniques to obtain deeper insight.

Acknowledgments

The European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (ESRF, Grenoble, France) is acknowledged for supplying synchrotron radiation facilities and the beamline scientists for their help and discussions during the measurements. We also thank all the people that contributed in the experiments described in this work. B.M.W. acknowledges NWO-CW, ACTS-ASPECT and NRSC-C for financial support.