Abstract
Using benzene hydrogenation over Pt/SiO2 as an industrially-relevant example, we show that state-of-the-art neutron total scattering methods spanning a wide Q-range now permit relevant time-resolved catalytic chemistry to be probed directly in situ within the pore of the catalyst. The method gives access to the reaction rates on both nanometric and atomic length scales, whilst simultaneously providing an atomistic structural viewpoint on the reaction mechanism itself.
Highlights
Catalysis in general, and heterogeneous catalysis in particular, is critical to the production of chemicals worldwide
As a consequence of their importance, it is thought that $35% of the world's GDP is reliant on catalysis.[2]
Many of these reactions are performed in the liquid phase; despite the importance of these materials and processes, the understanding of multi-phase interfaces and the impact of these on the overall rate process is poor
Summary
Heterogeneous catalysis in particular, is critical to the production of chemicals worldwide. Neutron scattering is an excellent atomic probe of condensed matter; until now, long data acquisition times have prevented total scattering techniques from being used to measure the kinetics of real systems. Small angle X-ray and neutron scattering has been applied to time-resolved studies of, for example, micelle aggregation[5] and evolution,[6] rheochaos and ow instability,[7] and polymerisation processes,[8] but the nature of these techniques necessarily means that information in the atomistic and chemical regime is lacking. We demonstrate that wide Q-range, total neutron scattering at state of the art pulsed neutron facilities is able to obtain kinetic information of reaction processes over multiple length scales spanning the small angle and wide angle regimes simultaneously
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