B07-C-Versatile Soft X-ray beamline: Ambient Pressure XPS and NEXAFS
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Jack E. N.
Swallow
,
Elizabeth S.
Jones
,
Ashley R.
Head
,
Joshua S.
Gibson
,
Roey
Ben David
,
Michael W.
Fraser
,
Matthijs A.
Van Spronsen
,
Shaojun
Xu
,
Georg
Held
,
Baran
Eren
,
Robert S
Weatherup
Diamond Proposal Number(s):
[25834]
Open Access
Abstract: The reactions of H2, CO2, and CO gas mixtures on the surface of Cu at 200 °C, relevant for industrial methanol synthesis, are investigated using a combination of ambient pressure X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (AP-XPS) and atmospheric-pressure near edge X-ray absorption fine structure (AtmP-NEXAFS) spectroscopy bridging pressures from 0.1 mbar to 1 bar. We find that the order of gas dosing can critically affect the catalyst chemical state, with the Cu catalyst maintained in a metallic state when H2 is introduced prior to the addition of CO2. Only on increasing the CO2 partial pressure is CuO formation observed that coexists with metallic Cu. When only CO2 is present, the surface oxidizes to Cu2O and CuO, and the subsequent addition of H2 partially reduces the surface to Cu2O without recovering metallic Cu, consistent with a high kinetic barrier to H2 dissociation on Cu2O. The addition of CO to the gas mixture is found to play a key role in removing adsorbed oxygen that otherwise passivates the Cu surface, making metallic Cu surface sites available for CO2 activation and subsequent conversion to CH3OH. These findings are corroborated by mass spectrometry measurements, which show increased H2O formation when H2 is dosed before rather than after CO2. The importance of maintaining metallic Cu sites during the methanol synthesis reaction is thereby highlighted, with the inclusion of CO in the gas feed helping to achieve this even in the absence of ZnO as the catalyst support.
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Mar 2023
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E01-JEM ARM 200CF
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Diamond Proposal Number(s):
[23984]
Open Access
Abstract: Due to the reducible nature of TiO2, the encapsulation of cobalt nanoparticles (CoNPs) by reduced TiO2-x is often reported to decrease their catalytic performance in reactions such as Fisher-Tropsch synthesis (FTS). Here, we show using HAADF-STEM imaging and electron energy loss spectroscopy (EELS) that a residual C12E4 surfactant used to prepare the CoNPs, remains on the surface of a TiO2 rutile support, preventing the formation of Ti3+/Ti2+ oxides and therefore TiO2-x migration. Furthermore, the presence of these surfactant residues prevents the coalescence and aggregation of CoNPs during catalyst preparation, maintaining the dispersion of CoNPs. As such, using C12E4 in the preparation of Co/TiO2 can be considered beneficial for producing a catalyst with a greater number of active Co species.
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Feb 2023
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B18-Core EXAFS
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Man
Zhang
,
Shaojun
Xu
,
Mebrouka
Boubeche
,
Donato
Decarolis
,
Yizhe
Huang
,
Biying
Liu
,
Emma K.
Gibson
,
Xin
Li
,
Yuchen
Wang
,
Huixia
Luo
,
C. Richard A.
Catlow
,
Kai
Yan
Diamond Proposal Number(s):
[19850]
Abstract: Green and highly selective synthesis of organonitrogen chemicals (ONCs) using the renewable energy source biomass over noble-metal free solid catalysts under common room temperature and pressure conditions is still a major challenge. Here, we report a sustainable electrochemical method for selective synthesis of several valuable ONCs with high yields using biomass-derived furanic aldehydes over greenly fabricated TiS2 nanosheets through a facile synthesis. Based on a range of characterization techniques including high-resolution transmission electron microscopy and X-ray absorption fine structure, a well-defined structure of the TiS2 nanosheets (3.86 nm with 1T phase) was constructed. These as-prepared catalysts were applied to the electrochemical reductive amination (ERA) of three biomass-derived aldehydes, i.e. furfural (FF), 5-methylfurfural (MF) and 5-hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF), and exhibited superior performance whereby over 95% conversion of each furanic aldehyde and nearly perfect selectivity of ONCs were achieved. TiS2 nanosheets, in particular, exhibited a marked ∼2-fold increase in conversion (∼49%) compared with the monometallic Ti electrode. Besides, the reaction kinetics and rational pathway were also studied. In addition, these exfoliated TiS2 nanosheets maintained high durability over 6 h, providing a promising and versatile route for the sustainable upgrading of biomass-derived sources.
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Nov 2022
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I20-EDE-Energy Dispersive EXAFS (EDE)
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Mengtian
Fan
,
Shaojun
Xu
,
Bing
An
,
Alena M.
Sheveleva
,
Alexander
Betts
,
Joseph
Hurd
,
Zhaodong
Zhu
,
Meng
He
,
Dinu
Iuga
,
Longfei
Lin
,
Xinchen
Kang
,
Christopher M. A.
Parlett
,
Floriana
Tuna
,
Eric J. L.
Mcinnes
,
Luke L.
Keenan
,
Daniel
Lee
,
Martin P.
Attfield
,
Sihai
Yang
Diamond Proposal Number(s):
[28575]
Abstract: The production of conjugated C4-C5 dienes from biomass can enable the sustainable synthesis of many important polymers and liquid fuels. Here, we report the first example of bimetallic (Nb, Al)-atomically doped mesoporous silica, denoted as AlNb-MCM-41, which affords quantitative conversion of 2-methyltetrahydrofuran (2-MTHF) to pentadienes with a high selectivity of 91%. The incorporation of Al(III) and Nb(V) sites into the framework of AlNb-MCM-41 has effectively tuned the nature and distribution of Lewis and Brønsted acid sites within the structure. Operando X-ray absorption, diffuse reflectance infrared and solid-state NMR spectroscopy collectively reveal the molecular mechanism of the conversion of adsorbed 2-MTHF over AlNb-MCM-41. Specifically, the atomically-dispersed Nb(V) sites play an important role in binding 2-MTHF to drive the conversion. Overall, this study highlights the potential of hetero-atomic mesoporous solids for the manufacture of renewable materials.
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Oct 2022
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B18-Core EXAFS
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Diamond Proposal Number(s):
[19850]
Abstract: Anthropogenic carbon dioxide (CO2) emission is soaring day by day due to fossil fuel combustion to fulfill the daily energy requirements of our society. The CO2 concentration should be stabilized to evade the deadly consequences of it, as climate change is one of the major consequences of greenhouse gas emission. Chemical fixation of CO2 to other value-added chemicals requires high energy due to its stability at the highest oxidation state, creating a tremendous challenge to the scientific community to fix CO2 and prevent global warming caused by it. In this work, we have introduced a novel monomer-assembly-directed strategy to design va isible-light-responsive conjugated Zn-metalated porous organic polymer (Zn@MA-POP) with a dynamic covalent acyl hydrazone linkage, via a one-pot condensation between the self-assembled monomer 1,3,5-benzenetricarbohydrazide (TPH) and a Zn complex (Zn@COM). We have successfully explored as-synthesized Zn@MA-POP as a potential photocatalyst in visible-light-driven CO2 photofixation with styrene epoxide (SE) to styrene carbonate (SC). Nearly 90% desired product (SC) selectivity has been achieved with our Zn@MA-POP, which is significantly better than that for the conventional Zn@TiO2 (∼29%) and Zn@gC3N4 (∼26%) photocatalytic systems. The excellent light-harvesting nature with longer lifetime minimizes the radiative recombination rate of photoexcited electrons as a result of extended π-conjugation in Zn@MA-POP and increased CO2 uptake, eventually boosting the photocatalytic activity. Local structural results from a first-shell EXAFS analysis reveals the existence of a Zn(N2O4) core structure in Zn@MA-POP, which plays a pivotal role in activating the epoxide ring as well as capturing the CO2 molecules. An in-depth study of the POP–CO2 interaction via a density functional theory (DFT) analysis reveals two feasible interactions, Zn@MA-POP-CO2-A and Zn@MA-POP-CO2-B, of which the latter has a lower relative energy of 0.90 kcal/mol in comparison to the former. A density of states (DOS) calculation demonstrates the lowering of the LUMO energy (EL) of Zn@MA-POP by 0.35 and 0.42 eV, respectively, for the two feasible interactions, in comparison to Zn@COM. Moreover, the potential energy profile also unveils the spontaneous and exergonic photoconversion pathways for the SE to SC conversion. Our contribution is expected to spur further interest in the precise design of visible-light-active conjugated porous organic polymers for CO2 photofixation to value-added chemicals.
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Aug 2022
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I06-Nanoscience
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Diamond Proposal Number(s):
[24409]
Open Access
Abstract: Improving both the extent of metallic Co nanoparticle (Co NP) formation and their stability is necessary to ensure good catalytic performance, particularly for Fischer–Tropsch synthesis (FTS). Here, we observe how the presence of surface oxygen vacancies (Ovac) on TiO2 can readily reduce individual Co3O4 NPs directly into CoO/Co0 in the freshly prepared sample by using a combination of X-ray photoemission electron microscopy (X-PEEM) coupled with soft X-ray absorption spectroscopy. The Ovac are particularly good at reducing the edge of the NPs as opposed to their center, leading to smaller particles being more reduced than larger ones. We then show how further reduction (and Ovac consumption) is achieved during heating in H2/syngas (H2 + CO) and reveal that Ovac also prevents total reoxidation of Co NPs in syngas, particularly the smallest (∼8 nm) particles, thus maintaining the presence of metallic Co, potentially improving catalyst performance.
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Jul 2022
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E01-JEM ARM 200CF
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Shanshan
Xu
,
Thomas J. A.
Slater
,
Hong
Huang
,
Yangtao
Zhou
,
Yilai
Jiao
,
Christopher M. A.
Parlett
,
Shaoliang
Guan
,
Sarayute
Chansai
,
Shaojun
Xu
,
Xinrui
Wang
,
Christopher
Hardacre
,
Xiaolei
Fan
Diamond Proposal Number(s):
[29468]
Open Access
Abstract: The stability of catalysts in dry reforming of methane (DRM) is a known issue. In this paper an encapsulation strategy has been employed to improve the stability compared with conventional impregnation methods. Herein, nickel nanoparticles encapsulated in silicalite-1 were prepared using a range of methods including post treatment, direct hydrothermal and seed-directed methods to investigate the effect of synthesis protocol on the properties of catalysts, such as degree of encapsulation and Ni dispersion, and anti-coking/-sintering performance in DRM. The Ni@SiO2-S1 catalysts obtained by the seed-directed synthesis presented the full encapsulation of Ni NPs by the zeolite framework with small particle sizes (∼2.9 nm) and strong metal-support interaction, which could sterically hinder the migration/aggregation of Ni NPs and carbon deposition. Therefore, Ni@SiO2-S1 showed stable CO2/CH4 conversions of 80% and 73%, respectively, with negligible metal sintering and coking deposition (∼0.5 wt.%) over 28 h, which outperformed the other catalysts prepared. In contrast, the catalysts developed by the post-treatment and ethylenediamine-protected hydrothermal methods showed the co-existence of Ni phase on the internal and external surfaces, i.e. incomplete encapsulation, with large Ni particles, contributing to Ni sintering and coking. The correlation of the synthesis-structure-performance in this study sheds light on the design of coking-/sintering-resistant encapsulated catalysts for DRM.
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Jun 2022
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B18-Core EXAFS
B22-Multimode InfraRed imaging And Microspectroscopy
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Yujie
Ma
,
Wanpeng
Lu
,
Xue
Han
,
Yinlin
Chen
,
Ivan
Da Silva
,
Daniel
Lee
,
Alena M.
Sheveleva
,
Zi
Wang
,
Jiangnan
Li
,
Weiyao
Li
,
Mengtian
Fan
,
Shaojun
Xu
,
Floriana
Tuna
,
Eric J. L.
Mcinnes
,
Yongqiang
Cheng
,
Svemir
Rudic
,
Pascal
Manuel
,
Mark D.
Frogley
,
Anibal J.
Ramirez-Cuesta
,
Martin
Schroeder
,
Sihai
Yang
Diamond Proposal Number(s):
[19850]
Open Access
Abstract: The presence of active sites in metal–organic framework (MOF) materials can control and affect their performance significantly in adsorption and catalysis. However, revealing the interactions between the substrate and active sites in MOFs at atomic precision remains a challenging task. Here, we report the direct observation of binding of NH3 in a series of UiO-66 materials containing atomically dispersed defects and open Cu(I) and Cu(II) sites. While all MOFs in this series exhibit similar surface areas (1111–1135 m2 g–1), decoration of the −OH site in UiO-66-defect with Cu(II) results in a 43% enhancement of the isothermal uptake of NH3 at 273 K and 1.0 bar from 11.8 in UiO-66-defect to 16.9 mmol g–1 in UiO-66-CuII. A 100% enhancement of dynamic adsorption of NH3 at a concentration level of 630 ppm from 2.07 mmol g–1 in UiO-66-defect to 4.15 mmol g–1 in UiO-66-CuII at 298 K is observed. In situ neutron powder diffraction, inelastic neutron scattering, and electron paramagnetic resonance, solid-state nuclear magnetic resonance, and infrared spectroscopies, coupled with modeling reveal that the enhanced NH3 uptake in UiO-66-CuII originates from a {Cu(II)···NH3} interaction, with a reversible change in geometry at Cu(II) from near-linear to trigonal coordination. This work represents the first example of structural elucidation of NH3 binding in MOFs containing open metal sites and will inform the design of new efficient MOF sorbents by targeted control of active sites for NH3 capture and storage.
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May 2022
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B18-Core EXAFS
B22-Multimode InfraRed imaging And Microspectroscopy
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Diamond Proposal Number(s):
[19850]
Abstract: Rational design of low-cost and active electrocatalysts is crucial for upgrading of biomass-derived chemicals into value-added products. Here, we report highly efficient catalysts of ternary NiCoMn-layered double hydroxides (NiCoMn-LDHs) nanosheets which are oxygen vacancy-rich, produced under controllable conditions for the electrocatalytic oxidation of both biomass-derived 5-hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF) to 2,5-furandicarboxylic acid (FDCA) and furfural to furoic acid (FurAc) in mild conditions, respectively. Electrochemical tests showed that the oxidation of HMF and furfural were preferential over the oxidation of water at the lower applied potentials with NiCoMn-LDHs catalysts. The high yields of FDCA (91.7%) and FurAc (92.4%) were achieved in 2.5 h using 1.15 nm thick NiCoMn-LDHs nanosheets with a NiCo:Mn ratio of 2:1 at 35 oC and atmospheric pressure. The mechanism for the superior performance, high durability, and good Faradaic efficiency of the catalysts has been elucidated by a comprehensive characterization, which confirmed the ultrathin nanosheets expose more Co-NiOOH active sites with oxygen vacancies, facilitating the synergistic effect between HMF as well as furfural oxidation reaction on Co-Ni and Mn2+ states. The oxygen vacancy-rich NiCoMn-LDHs nanosheets catalysts present a novel and energy-efficient solution to achieve a high yield of value-added chemicals from renewable sources.
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Apr 2021
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B18-Core EXAFS
B22-Multimode InfraRed imaging And Microspectroscopy
I11-High Resolution Powder Diffraction
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Shaojun
Xu
,
Xue
Han
,
Yujie
Ma
,
Thien D.
Duong
,
Longfei
Lin
,
Emma K.
Gibson
,
Alena
Sheveleva
,
Sarayute
Chansai
,
Alex
Walton
,
Duc-The
Ngo
,
Mark D.
Frogley
,
Chiu C.
Tang
,
Floriana
Tuna
,
Eric J. L.
Mcinnes
,
C. Richard A.
Catlow
,
Christopher
Hardacre
,
Sihai
Yang
,
Martin
Schroeder
Open Access
Abstract: Efficient catalytic conversion of NO2 to non-harmful species remains an important target for research. State-of-the-art deNOx processes are based upon ammonia (NH3)-assisted selective catalytic reduction (NH3-SCR) over Cu-exchanged zeolites at elevated temperatures. Here, we describe a highly efficient non-thermal plasma (NTP) deNOx process catalyzed by a Cu-embedded metal-organic framework, Cu/MFM-300(Al), at room temperature. Under NTP activation at 25°C, Cu/MFM-300(Al) enables direct decomposition of NO2 into N2, NO, N2O, and O2 without the use of NH3 or other reducing agents. NO2 conversion of 96% with a N2 selectivity of 82% at a turnover frequency of 2.9 h−1 is achieved, comparable to leading NH3-SCR catalysts that use NH3 operating at 250°C–550°C. The mechanism for the rate-determining step (NO→N2) is elucidated by in operando diffuse reflectance infrared Fourier transform spectroscopy, and electron paramagnetic resonance spectroscopy confirms the formation of Cu2+⋯NO nitrosylic adducts on Cu/MFM-300(Al), which facilitates NO dissociation and results in the notable N2 selectivity.
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Feb 2021
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