Catalysis

For an adequate characterization of catalysts and various highly dispersed technical materials of catalytic relevance such as catalyst supports, carbonaceous deposits, and others that show structural complexity at several orders of magnitude, the combination of different methods is essential. Especially, neutron spectroscopy picks up where other analytic methods leave off, for example, if the absorption behavior to electromagnetic radiation or the electrical conductivity of a catalytic material causes standard methods in catalyst characterization to fail. Recent examples of utilizing neutrons in tackling difficult analytic problems in academic research and in industrial applied catalysis are summarized. These problems could not be resolved by means of conventional laboratory techniques and equipment. A major focus is the hydrogen-related chemistry of catalysts at realistic gas pressures, metal concentration, catalyst shape, and quantity. Neutron scattering enables the investigation of the complete production and application processes from characterizing raw or reference materials including carbonaceous or oxide supports, freshly prepared unreduced catalysts, hydrogenated catalysts, and working active, used, deactivated, poisoned or aged catalysts, from “cradle to grave.” Examples from large-scale technical applications in the synthesis of commodity chemicals and fuel cell catalysis and selective hydrogenation reactions will be presented