U.S.-Mexico Cooperative Research: The Formation of Supported Bimetallic Clusters with Emphasis on the Effect of Support

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This award will support Professor Richard D. Gonzalez of the University of Illinois at Chicago Circle in collaboration with Professor Ricardo Gomez of the Metropolitan University of Mexico at Iztapalapa. Studies recently completed suggest that metal-precursor-support interactions are important in determining the resulting surface composition of supported multimetallic catalysts. In particular, the presence of a mobile surface metal-precursor results in the surface enrichment of that metal in the resulting bimetallic catalyst. The investigators aim to identify the structure of these precursor-surface complexes using diffuse U.V. reflectance spectroscopy. The strength of the metal-support interactions will be measured through the use of quantitative differential scanning calorimetry and the elemental composition of the resulting bimetallic particles will be obtained through the use of dispersive x-ray spectroscopy (EDXS). EDXS will also be used to study interparticle metal phase relationships. The proposed research will be carried out simultaneously at the University of Illinois at Chicago and the Metropolitan University of Mexico at Iztapalapa. The in-situ diffuse U.V. reflectance studies, the microcalorimetric DSC studies and the catalyst charac- terization studies, including the surface composition measurements, will be carried out at the University of Illinois. The catalytic probe reactions and major portion of the EDXS studies will be performed in Mexico.