Probing powder supported catalysts with sum frequency spectroscopy

Sum frequency generation spectroscopy in heterogeneous model catalysis: a minireview of CO-related processes

Sum frequency generation (SFG) vibrational spectroscopy is applied to ambient pressure surface science studies of adsorption and catalytic reactions at solid/gas interfaces.

Shining light on the solid–liquid interface: in situ/operando monitoring of surface catalysis

Many industrially important chemical transformations occur at the interface between a solid catalyst and liquid reactants. In situ and operando spectroscopies offer unique insight into the reactivity of such catalytically active solid–liquid interfaces.

Discovery of Cellulose Surface Layer Conformation by Nonlinear Vibrational Spectroscopy

Significant questions remain in respect to cellulose’s structure and polymorphs, particularly the cellulose surface layers and the bulk crystalline core as well as the conformational differences. Total Internal Reflection Sum Frequency Generation Vibrational Spectroscopy (TIR-SFG-VS) combined with conventional SFG-VS (non-TIR) enables selectively characterizing the molecular structures of surface layers and the crystalline core of cellulose, revealing their differences for the first time. From the SFG spectra in the C-H and O-H regions, we found that the surface layers of Avicel are essentially amorphous while the surface layers of Iβ cellulose are crystalline but with different structural and spectroscopic signatures compared with its crystalline core. The differences between hydrogen bonding networks of cellulose surface and crystalline core were also shown by the SFG signal. The discovery here represents yet another instance of the importance of spectroscopic observations in transformative advances to understand the structure of the cellulosic biomass.

Catalyst characterisation techniques and reaction cells operating at realistic conditions; towards acquisition of kinetically relevant information

Catalyst characterisation techniques and reaction cells operating at realistic conditions; towards acquisition of kinetically relevant information.

Identifying reaction intermediates and catalytic active sites through in situ characterization techniques

This tutorial review centers on recent advances and applications of experimental techniques that help characterize surface species and catalyst structures under in situ conditions. We start by reviewing recent applications of IR spectroscopy of working catalysis, emphasizing newer approaches such as Sum Frequency Generation and Polarization Modulation-infrared reflection absorption spectroscopy. This is followed by a section on solid-state NMR spectroscopy for the detection of surface species and reaction intermediates. These two techniques provide information mainly about the concentration and identity of the prevalent surface species. The following sections center on methods that provide structural and chemical information about the catalyst surface. The increasingly important role of high-pressure X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy in catalyst characterization is evident from the new and interesting information obtained on supported catalysts as presented in recent reports. X-Ray absorption spectroscopy (XANES and EXAFS) is used increasingly under reaction conditions to great advantage, although is inherently limited to systems where the bulk of the species in the sample are surface species. However, the ability of X-rays to penetrate the sample has been used cleverly by a number of groups to understand how changing reaction conditions change the structure and composition of surface atoms on supported catalyst.