Rational design of catalysts requires understanding of correlations between geometric structure, thermal and electronic properties, as well as their activity and selectivity. This task calls for a combination of in situ techniques, due to the mesoscopic nature of nanoscale materials. At the synchrotrons, such innovations include combining X-ray absorption and scattering methods, and coupling them to vibrational spectroscopies (IR or Raman). A common problem with X-ray methods is their reliance on ensemble averaging which is prone to misinterpretation when applied to systems with broad compositional and structural distributions. In that case local information, such as one provided by electron microscopy, is required. I will describe recent advances at the Synchrotron Catalysis Consortium in coupling the in situ XAFS to the in situ environmental TEM measurements performed in similar conditions. Finally, I will demonstrate the feasibility of conducting in situ experiments on the same system by XAS and TEM techniques.

In situ X-ray studies of model and real catalysts: Bridging the complexity gap

244th National Meeting (2012)

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