Catalytic activity of nanophase metals prepared sonochemically

Conference · Fri Dec 01 04:00:00 EST 1995

OSTI ID:126514

Suslick, K S; Cichowlas, A A; Fang, Ming Ming; Hyeon, T ^[1]

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1. Univ. of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, IL (United States)

Irradiation of liquids with high intensity ultrasound creates localized, transient hot-spots ({approx}5000 K, {approx}1700 K) with enormous heating and cooling rates (> 10{sup 9} K/sec) through the mechanism of acoustic cavitation: the formation, growth, and implosive collapse of bubbles in a liquid. This has provided us with a general route to the synthesis of nanophase clusters of metals, metal oxides, or metal carbides from the sonolysis of volatile organometallic precursors . We have prepared nanostructured powders, polymer-stabilized colloids, and silica-supported heterogeneous catalysts of metals, alloys, oxides, and carbides with typical particle sizes of {approximately}5 nm. XRPD, TEM microdiffraction, and neutron diffraction studies have established that the particles are amorphous at the manometer scale. The catalytic activity of these materials has been examined using a gas-solid flow microreactor with GC/MS detection. The sonochemically prepared Fe, Co, and Fe-Co powders are extremely active catalysts for dehydrogenation and hydrogenolysis of alkanes and for the Fischer-Tropsch hydrogenation of CO. The alloys show exceptionally high selectivity for dehydrogenation of alkanes.

• OSTI ID: 126514
• Report Number(s): CONF-950402--
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

01 COAL, LIGNITE, AND PEAT
36 MATERIALS SCIENCE
CARBIDES
CARBON MONOXIDE
CATALYSTS
COLLOIDS
DEHYDROGENATION
FISCHER-TROPSCH SYNTHESIS
HEATING
HYDROGENATION
IRRADIATION
NEUTRON DIFFRACTION
OXIDES
SILICA
SYNTHESIS
ULTRASONIC WAVES