以煤为原料经费托合成生产清洁液体燃料，是我国发展新型煤炭工业体系，构筑稳定、经济、清洁、安全的能源供应体系的重要举措之一。但是由于表征技术的有限，我们对铁系费托催化剂的认识被广域和离线测试结果所局限，使我们无法深入理解费托催化的动态过程和定域区间内催化活性相的变化。本项目拟采用原位透射电子显微镜和扫描透射电子显微镜为表征手段，研究费托反应环境下纳米尺度模型铁催化的碳化和其他副反应过程，通过会聚束电子衍射和电子损失谱搜集表面碳化的纳米颗粒的晶体结构和物理化学性质，为更深入地理解催化剂表面活性相的形成和催化过程提供更直观和有说服力的结果。研究并结合山西煤化所及中科合成油公司量化计算和谱学模拟的成果，建构可能的纳米催化活性相模型和表面化学环境解析，为高性能Fe基催化剂的定向设计与改性提供直观依据和理论指导。

Fischer-Tropsch synthesis, which could produce a wide spectrum of hydrocarbons and other valuable chemical feedstocks from coal, offers an alternative method to produce clean fuels in an environmentally benign way and eventually decreases dependency on foreign oil. Despite great successes in commercialization of cheap and unharmful Fe-based catalysts, mang important research questions remain unanswered. Due to technology limitations and complicated features of activated catalysts,exact structural compositions of active components under realistic reaction conditions keep unknown and dynamic knowledge about catalytic process at the nanoscale is still missing. In this project, in-situ transmission electronic microscopy (TEM) and scanning transmission electronic microscopy (STEM) would be employed to study carburization process of model iron catalysts and subsequent deactivation processes in presence of syngas. In STEM mode, both crystal structure and chemical information of nano/subnano particles will be collected by using convergent beam electron diffraction and electron energy loss spectroscopic tool, respectively.The obtained information would help us to gain an insightful understanding about the chemical nature of the active components and the activation/deactivation process of real F-T catalysts. Meanwhile, combining with the theoretical calculation and spectroscopic simulation will be done by Institute of Coal Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences and Synfules China, we will make further efforts to conduct 3-D reconstruction of the atomic positions in a simulated activated iron nanocrystal based on the high-resolution images, spectroscopic evidence and theoretical calculation. We believe that the successful characterization of this important catalytic process at nanoscales will be of vital importance for both academia and industry, which have significant impacts on the design of Fischer-Tropsch synthetic high-performance catalyst.