Abstract: Catalysts respond to their environment necessitating their characterization under real working conditions to properly understand structure-activity relationships. -ray diffraction computed tomography (XRD-CT) has recently been developed as a chemical imaging tool to study catalytic systems under real process conditions; the spatially-resolved signals revealing insight into structural transformation lost in bulk measurements. However, the temporal resolution of the XRD-CT technique is its main drawback. Herein, we use a new data collection strategy which minimizes the “dead time” during an XRD-CT scan, in conjunction with a “noisefree” photon counting detector to yield 2D data in seconds. This combination has been used to obtain a 3D ‘chemical’ image of a multicomponent Ni/Pd catalyst supported on ZrO2-CeO2/Al2O3packed-bed reactor during activation and partial oxidation of methane. The time-resolved chemical profiles reveal the variability in structural composition on a particle basis but also reveal differences as a function in bed height allowing a more complete understanding of the correlation between catalyst structure and function.

Cite: Vamvakeros A. , Jacques S.D.M. , Middelkoop V. , Michiel M.D. , Ismagilov I.Z. , Beale A.M.
Chemistry in 5D; Operando Time­resolved 3D­XRD­CT of a Packed­bed Reactor During Methane Partial Oxdiation
EuropaCat-XIII: 13th European Congress on Catalysis 27-31 Aug 2017