Characterization Analysis of Heterogeneous Catalysts

Dear Colleagues,

Heterogeneous catalysis is essential to chemical industries, wherein nearly 90% of chemicals are facilitated by heterogeneous catalysts. Thus, high selectivity and activity of catalysts are among the most crucial requirements for a successful commercial application. Firstly, finding relationships between structure and activity is a main challenge in fundamental and applied catalysis research owing to the complex structures displayed by heterogeneous catalysts. Another major problem related to the operation of heterogeneous catalysis is the loss of catalyst activity with time-on-stream which refers to deactivation. The catalyst deactivation is likely to occur through poisoning of catalyst-active phase, sintering of the catalyst and blockage of the active sites. This process is inevitable, but it can be slowed or prevented, and some of its consequences can be avoided.

It is well known from ex situ structural characterisation that the morphology, composition and crystalline structure of the catalysts evolve during catalytic reactions. Undoubtedly, significant progress has been made in using advanced synchrotron and neutron scattering-based characterisation methods. However, taking into account that the metal active site loading in the sample is often only a few percentage points, the measured signal mainly originates from the bulk volume and not from the surface where the reaction takes place. Thus, gaining new knowledge on the catalyst structure of active sites, interactions of adsorbates on supported catalyst and the catalyst deactivation process is crucial to design more efficient and robust catalytic materials. This cannot be achieved using a single technique and combined approach of various methods needs to be applied to provide a full picture of heterogeneous materials and their processes.

Therefore, this Special Issue primarily focuses on the comprehensive and fundamental off-line characterisation, neutron scattering and synchrotron-based X-ray techniques that play a key role in obtaining insight information on heterogeneous catalysts, their interactions with the reactants, catalyst deactivation and understanding the structure-function-reactivity relationship for a range of catalytic processes.

Dr. Anna B. Kroner
Dr. Diego Gianolio
Guest Editors

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