The Experimental Accuracy of Lattice Spacing Determination on Small Metal Particles in Commercial Catalysts

Extract

A description of the microstructure of heterogeneous catalysts is important in understanding the mechanisms for catalysis and may result in improvements in catalyst performance. Many commercial catalysts consist of small metal particles and/or metal oxide particles dispersed on a porous support. For bimetallic catalysts, the metals may be in the form of alloys, metal mixtures or completely phase separated. HREM has been demonstrated to be a powerful technique for determining the lattice spacing from small particles[l]. In many studies of catalysts it is necessary to prepare TEM samples by microtomy so that the particle location relative to the porous support is preserved. However, such samples show a reduction in particle visibility and signal-to-noise ratio of lattice fringes. In spite of these difficulties, we have been able to routinely use HREM to rapidly determine the relative distributions of metal and metal oxides in many systems because of the large difference in spacing between strong reflections from the metal and metal oxide (typically 20 %).