The collaboration of the SUNCAT Center for Interfacial Science and Catalysis with SSRL at SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory is leading to new understanding of the factors that determine the catalytic properties of solid surfaces. This work is leading to new insights towards the development of improved catalysts. A fundamental tenet of this work is the use of operando spectroscopy, primarily synchrotron techniques, that allow the characterization of the catalyst under operando conditions, which provides information of catalytic phenomena at the molecular and atomic scale. In this talk I will illustrate this concept using examples drawn from several catalytic processes that are being studied at SUNCAT. This will include catalysts for syngas conversion to higher alcohols, improving the activity of oxygen evolution reaction (OER) and the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) in water splitting, and methane activation under mild conditions. The infrastructure to study these reactions has been designed, constructed and tested – including studying syngas conversion to higher alcohols at temperatures up to 500°C and 50 bar, together with on-line product analysis using gas chromatography and residual gas analysis using x-ray absorption spectroscopy, and also a system using laboratory-based DRIFTS. The formulation of the catalysts synthesized, tested, and characterized for these reactions is guided by computational chemistry and methods, and examples of this approach will be highlighted.

Operando spectroscopy from the perspective of SUNCAT and SSRL

253rd National Meeting (2017)

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