Atomic scale observation of oxygen delivery during catalyzed oxidation of carbon nanotubes

Gatan instrument used

The model 628 is a furnace-type holder designed to allow the direct observation of microstructural phase changes, catalysis, nucleation, growth, and dissolution processes in 3 mm TEM samples at elevated temperatures.

Background

Heterogeneous catalysis plays an important role in many clean energy technology applications, including soot emissions reduction. In heterogeneous catalysis, reactants are transformed into products on the surface of a solid catalyst material. Current development of catalyst materials often focuses on nanoparticles (NP), since these have a large surface-to-volume ratio. Ag has been the subject of significant study for oxidation of soot and other carbonaceous materials. This work attempts to explore the atomic structure of Ag nanoparticle active sites for carbon oxidation using a model carbonaceous material: multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MW-CNT).