Visualising Co nanoparticle aggregation and encapsulation in Co/TiO2 catalysts and its mitigation through surfactant residues

Qiu, Chengwu, Odarchenko, Yaroslav, Lezcano-Gonzalez, Ines, Meng, Qingwei, Slater, Tom ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0372-1551, Xu, Shaojun and Beale, Andrew M. 2023. Visualising Co nanoparticle aggregation and encapsulation in Co/TiO2 catalysts and its mitigation through surfactant residues. Journal of Catalysis 419 , pp. 58-67. 10.1016/j.jcat.2023.02.002

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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.

Item Type:	Article
Date Type:	Publication
Status:	Published
Schools:	Chemistry Cardiff Catalysis Institute (CCI)
Publisher:	Elsevier
ISSN:	0021-9517
Funders:	EPSRC
Date of First Compliant Deposit:	2 March 2023
Date of Acceptance:	3 February 2023
Last Modified:	03 May 2023 09:11
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/157438

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