US-South Africa Cooperative Research: Studies of Phase Transformations in Fe Fischer-Tropsch Catalysts

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This award supports a cooperative research project between Abhaya Datye, Center for Micro-Engineered Materials, University of New Mexico (UNM), and Neil Coville, Department of Chemistry, University of the Witwatersrand (WITS), Johannesburg, South Africa. The project will involve the exchange of graduate students for short-term research visits. The investigators plan to study iron catalysts for Fischer-Tropsch (FT) syntheses. The work will be aimed at overcoming problems such as catalyst deactivation and low activity. After subjecting catalysts to several different environments, detailed characterizations, using X-ray diffraction, transmission electron microscopy, and other surface analyses will be performed. Reactor studies will be performed simultaneously to determine the effects of catalyst preparation on selectivity.Previous work performed jointly by Professors Datye and Coville led to improved understanding of the nature of the active phase in FT catalysts. In this collaboration the WITS group will perform the synthetic inorganic chemistry, in-situ Mossbauer spectroscopy, and the reactor work. The UNM group will carry out characterization studies using transmission electron spectroscopy and X-ray diffraction. They will also be involved in sol-gel synthesis of the catalyst materials. FT catalysts are used to convert coal-derived synthesis gas to liquid fuels. This process is currently employed in South Africa and could become more important in the United States if petroleum-based fuels become scarcer.