Methanol Partial Oxidation on MoO3/SiO2 Catalysts: Application of Vibrational Spectroscopic Imaging Techniques in a High Throughput Operando Reactor

A home-built, high-throughput operando (HTO) reactor was applied to study methanol partial oxidation reaction over MoO3/SiO2 catalysts. This HTO reactor combines Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) imaging and Raman spectroscopy for high throughput catalyst evaluation and simultaneously for catalyst characterization under operando conditions. The catalyst activity and selectivity of all parallel reaction channels were followed at a time resolution of 2-20 s by the FT-IR imaging system that offers a spatial resolution of 16,384 pixels over a 2 x 2 inches illuminated cross-section area. Six specialized Raman probes were used to simultaneously collect Raman spectra of the catalyst surfaces and reaction intermediates under operando conditions. The structural variation of the MoO3/SiO2 catalysts with different molybdenum loadings and their catalytic performance at various temperatures were determined. The HTO reactor with the integrated imaging techniques allowed us to track the catalytic activities and the surface morphologies for multiple samples under various operando conditions.