Electron Microscopy and XAS Studies of Novel Catalysts Based on Amorphous Materials

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This project will specifically be focusing on the study of novel amorphous catalysts prepared by supercritical antisolvent precipitation. Compared to crystalline materials, the structural details of amorphous materials, and their role in catalytic reactions are more challenging to study. The imaging, diffraction and spectroscopic capabilities of EM and XAS provide a range of techniques to extract critical information on these amorphous materials, such as elemental distribution, bonding information, oxidation state, pair distribution functions and possible short- to mid-range ordering. XAS and EM will provide complementary information: XAS provides detailed volume averaged information on the catalysts, while EM, with its higher spatial resolution, provides more localised information. In addition, both EM and XAS can be applied in an in-situ manner allowing us to dynamically follow the microstructural evolution of these amorphous materials under actual reaction conditions. Daniel Hewes will be developing and applying such electron microscopy and XAS techniques to study several disordered mixed oxide catalyst systems prepared by other team members (Tak Bere and Jack Pitchers) under a larger project funded by Total. The specific mixed oxide systems to be studied during the course of the project are CeZrOx, FeMoOx and AlSiOx. In each case, the structural data acquired on these systems will be correlated with their catalyst performance characteristics. Such studies will bring new insights into how disordered catalysts operate and provide opportunities for developing better mixed oxide catalyst formulations.