Thesis advisor: Matthias M. Waegele / Studying the adsorption and reaction kinetics of surface-bound chemical species, on different metal catalysts or electrodes, is of paramount importance in the development of inhomogeneous catalytic methodology. Our study of the oxidation of CO on platinum was accomplished by designing a thin layer flow cell in an external reflection configuration. A charge-injection circuit was successfully implemented which decreased the time required to charge the double layer in the electrochemical cell. We were able to obtain a signal via Stark shift spectrum, of the adsorbed CO, using the thin layer cell configuration. Additionally, electrochemical impedance spectroscopy was used as a diagnostic tool to assess the effect of electrode geometry, on the voltage response, in the thin layer cell. The coupling of visible light-driven photoexciation with transition metal catalytic plat- forms is emerging as a synthetic strategy to achieve unique reactivity that has previously been inaccessible. One such example is the iridium/nickel-dipyridyl system discovered recently. Characterizing the interactions between the iridium and nickel catalysts, under reaction conditions, is important to develop a better understanding of the system. In order to apply infrared spectroscopic measurement techniques, in-situ, we made modifications to the synthetic scheme by changing the solvent and by utilizing different iridium catalysts for the synthesis of the desired methyl 4-(benzoyloxy)benzoate product. Using our trans- mission infrared setup we effectively demonstrated in-situ product detection of the aryl- ester coupled product. Additionally, after constructing a transient infrared pump-probe setup, we collected preliminary results of the triplet state lifetime of the iridium dye. The surface morphology of copper has been shown to affect the electrochemical reduction of CO2. Using surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopies, the reversible formation of nanoscale metal clusters on a copper electrode was revealed at sufficiently cathodic potentials where we observed the appearance of a new band at 2080 cm-1 corresponding to C≡O adsorbed to undercoordinated copper defect sites. The formation of new undercoordinated sites additionally resulted in the surface enhancement of the Raman scattering which amplified the intensity of the other spectral bands. / Thesis (MS) — Boston College, 2019. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Chemistry.

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The aim of the study is to evaluate the ability of non-noble metal catalysts to function as the commercially used noble metal catalyst. The exhaust gas that was used in the project is generated from a heater developed by ReformTech AB with diesel as fuel. The compound that was focused on is carbon monoxide that has a concentration of 300-750 ppm. The catalysts that were tested are MnO/CeO2, CuO/CeO2 and a Pt/CeO2 catalyst used to compare the non-noble metal catalyst with. The sensitivity against sulfur poisoning was also analyzed by mixing sulfur into the fuel. Analysis of the exhaust gas was done with a micro-GC and the catalysts were also analyzed with SEM before and after exposure of sulfur.   The manganese catalyst with a loading of 7 wt-% did not show any activity against carbon monoxide oxidation. The copper catalysts contained two different loadings of active material, 7 and 14 wt-% and monoliths with 400 and 600 cpsi were used. Both loadings showed good activity against carbon monoxide oxidation.   The most prominent catalyst was the 14 wt-% CuO/CeO2 catalyst with a 600 cpsi monolith because of an increase in surface area. The SEM analysis showed that sulfur was present on the surface when the heater was using diesel with 300 ppm sulfur. The sulfur caused complete deactivation of the non-noble metal catalysts and a small decrease in activity was shown on the noble metal Pt catalyst.

This PhD thesis deals with the analysis of perovskite-based catalysts for the removal of soot and CO from the exhaust of highly efficient automotive gasoline engines. The study is primarily focused on the development of two series of samples obtained by the partial substitution of the Ba cation in BaMnO3 (BM) and BaMn0.7Cu0.3O3 (BMC), that is, with the general formula Ba0.9A0.1MnO3 (BM-A) and Ba0.9A0.1Mn0.7Cu0.3O3 (BMC-A), being A Ca, Ce, La, Mg or Sr. Subsequently, the activity of these samples as catalysts for the oxidation of soot and CO, in conditions simulating that found in the exhaust of automotive gasoline engines, has been estimated. Then after, in order to obtain the best composition of perovskites for soot oxidation, the optimal degree of Ba cation substitution for the two selected compositions (BM-Ce and BMC-La) has been explored by the synthesis of Ba1-xCexMnO3 (BM-Cex) and Ba1-xLaxCu0.3Mn0.7O3 (BMC-Lax) perovskite-type mixed oxides at different substitution levels (x = 0, 0.1, 0.3, 0.6). These catalysts were deeply characterized and used for GDI soot oxidation. Based on the results presented and discussed in the three published articles, corresponding to Ba0.9A0.1MnO3 (BM-A) and Ba0.9A0.1Mn0.7Cu0.3O3 (BMC-A) series, the following general conclusion have been extracted: - The hexagonal structure is preferred in the presence of A metal, as it is the main phase detected for BM-A, and, as the polytype structure found in the BMC sample (formed by distortion of the hexagonal perovskite due to the copper insertion into the lattice) is disfavored in BMC-A perovskites that present a mixture of the two structures. - On the surface of all perovskites, coexisting Mn(IV), Mn(III) and oxygen vacancies. Mn(IV) is the main oxidation state on the surface of all samples, but, in the bulk, it depends of the A metal and on the perovskite formulation: i) for BM-A series, Mn(III) is more abundant for BM-Ca and Mn(IV) is for BM-Mg, being both oxidation states in similar proportion for the other samples and ii) for BMC-A series, Mn(IV) is the main one for BMC-Ce and BMC-Mg, while Mn(III) was for BMC and BMC-La. - The partial substitution of Ba in BM and BMC: i) enhances the reducibility, being BM-La the most reducible sample from BM-A series (being the unique which evolves oxygen at intermediated temperature, ’-O2) and BMC-Ce from BMC-A series and ii) improves the lattice oxygen mobility, being Ce the most efficient A metal due to the contribution of the Ce(IV)/Ce(III) pair. - Almost all perovskites are active as catalysts for soot removal by oxidation, as most of the TPR-soot conversion profiles are shifted to lower temperatures in the presence of perovskites in the two atmospheres tested (0%and 1% O2 in He). However, the soot conversion is notably lower in the absence of O2 than in the presence of an 1% O2 in the reaction mixture, as the oxygen available for soot oxidation exclusively comes from the bulk of perovskites. In these conditions, BMC-La is the most active catalyst as presents the highest proportion of copper on the surface (as Ba-O-Cu species). In the presence of oxygen (1% O2 in He), BM-Ce is the best catalyst as it shows a high amount of oxygen surface vacancies, the highest oxygen mobility, and the best redox properties due to the additional participation of the Ce(IV)/Ce(III) pair which promotes the O2 emission from the bulk of perovskites, which seems being directly involved in the soot oxidation. - The role of copper seems to be relevant only if the oxygen used for the soot oxidation exclusively comes from the perovskite (i.e., in 100% He), as BMC-La, which presents the highest fraction of surface copper, is the most active catalyst. On the contrary, if soot is oxidized using the oxygen present in the reaction atmosphere (i.e., in 1% O2 in He), the presence of copper in the perovskite composition is not significant, as the most active catalyst is BM-Ce because it shows a higher fraction of surface Ce(IV) than BMC-Ce and, consequently, a better redox performance. - All BM-A and BMC-A perovskites are catalytically active for the oxidation of CO under all the reaction conditions tested, being more active in the gaseous mixtures with low CO/O2 ratios and showing the highest activity in 0.1% CO and 10% O2. - The addition of A metal increased the catalytic activity for the oxidation of CO at T < 500 °C with respect to BM and BMC, but BMC-A samples show the highest efficiency as catalysts for CO oxidation due to the presence of copper. For BM-A series, BM-La is the most effective to improve the catalytic performance as it this the most reducible and because generates ά-O2. For BMC-A series, BMC-Ce is the most active catalyst as it combines the presence of surface copper, oxygen vacancies, a high proportion of bulk and surface Mn(IV), and the contribution of the Ce(IV)/Ce(III) pair. - BMC-Ce perovskites presents at 200 °C, and using the 0.1% CO + 10%O2 gas mixture, a CO conversion very similar than the Pt-Al reference catalyst. From the un published results obtained for Ba0.9Ce0.1MnO3 (BM-Cex) and Ba0.9La0.1Cu0.3Mn0.7O3 (BMC-Lax) perovskites (with different substitution levels x = 0, 0.1, 0.3, 0.6), the following conclusions are proposed: - The characterization of BM-Cex series reveals that: i) as the percentage of Ce increases, the hexagonal perovskite structure is progressively replaced by CeO2 crystalline phase, which is the main one for BM-Ce0.6 , ii) Mn(IV) is the main oxidation state on surface for BM and BM-Ce0.1, but it is Mn(III) for BM-Ce0.3, while for BM-Ce0.6, an almost similar amount of Mn(III) and Mn(IV) are present, iii) Ce(III) and Ce(IV) coexist on the surface of all BM-Cex samples, and a considerable increase in the surface Ce(IV) proportion is detected from BM-Ce0.1 to BM-Ce0.6, iv) after doping with Ce, the reduction of Mn/Ce takes place at lower temperatures due to the synergetic effect between Mn and Ce and, finally, v) the oxygen mobility through the perovskite lattice increases in the presence of Ce (due to the contribution of Ce(IV)/Ce(III) pair) and all samples evolve -O2, but only BM-Ce0.1 generates a low amount of α´-O2. - The characterization of BMC-Lax series indicates that: i) as the percentage of lanthanum increases, the intensity of XRD peaks corresponding to BaMnO3 polytype structure decreases in favor of an increase in the intensity of the peaks corresponding to hexagonal 2H-BaMnO3 and trigonal La0.93MnO3 perovskite structures, being the latter the main phase for BMC-La0.6, ii) the amount of surface oxygen vacancies seems not to be sensible to the increase in the La amount, iii) Mn (III) and Mn (IV) coexist on the surface and in the bulk, but, on the surface Mn(III) increases with the La content, while in the bulk Mn(IV) is favored as La content is higher, iv) the accumulation of Cu (II) on the surface increases with the amount of La, v) an increase in the reducibility of BMC-La0.3 and BMC-La0.6 samples respect BMC and BMC-La0.1 is found, and, finally, vi) the oxygen mobility increases with the percentage of La. - The analysis of the catalytic performance for soot oxidation in the two conditions tested suggests that: i) in the absence of oxygen in the reaction atmosphere (100 % He), BMC-La0.1 is the best catalyst as copper is also able to catalyze the soot oxidation, ii) if oxygen is present in the reaction atmosphere (1 % O2 /He), BM-Ce0.1 is the most active catalyst as it presents a higher proportion of Mn(IV) than BMC-La0.1. - The addition of an amount of Ce or La higher than the corresponding to x=0.1 in Ba1-xCexMnO3 and Ba1-xLaxCu0.3Mn0.7O3 does not allow improving the catalytic performance of BM-Ce0.1 and BMC-La0.1 for soot oxidation in the tested conditions.

Ziel dieser Arbeit war, die Rastertunnelmikroskopie, die bereits zur Aufklärung von einfachen Reaktionsmechanismen eingesetzt wurde, für em kompliziertere Reaktionen anzuwenden. Die Oxidation von CO auf Pd(111) und auf einem RuO2-Film auf Ru(0001) wurde untersucht. Strukturelle Analysen ergeben mikroskopische Verteilungen der Adsorbate in den Überstrukturen von O und CO auf Pd(111) und RuO2. Dynamische und quantitative Analysen der Reaktionen liefern die Kinetik und die Mechanismen der Reaktionen direkt auf der mikroskopischen Ebene. O-Atome auf Pd(111) sind bei mittleren Bedeckungsgraden (0.10< theta mathrm O 135 K beweglich. Die Aktivierungsenergie der Diffusion (E * mathrm diff ) beträgt 0.54 pm 0.08 eV, der präexponentielle Faktor der Sprünge Gamma mathrm o beträgt 10 16 pm 3 s -1. Bei niedrigen Bedeckungen (theta mathrm CO sim 0) sind die CO-Moleküle auf Pd(111) schon bei T mathrm sample = 60 K sehr beweglich. Wenn man einen präexponentiellen Faktor von Gamma mathrm o = 10 13 s -1 annimmt, ergibt sich für E * mathrm diff von CO ein Wert von 0.15 eV. Adsorbiert CO auf der (2 times2) -O-Überstruktur bei T mathrm sample > 130 K, kommt es mit steigendem Bedeckungsgrad von CO zu Phasenübergängen, zunächst in eine ( sqrt 3 times Sqrt 3 ) R30 circ -O-Struktur, dann in eine (2 times1)-Struktur. Während der Phasenübergänge nimmt die Mobilität der O-Atome zu, was sich in einer Abnahme der E* mathrm diff um 10 bis 20 % (unter der Annahme von Gamma mathrm o = 10 16 s -1) im Vergleich zu einer CO-freien Oberfläche niederschlägt. Am Ende der Phasenübergänge entstehen aus einer fast völlig ungeordneten (O+CO)-Phase viele kleine (2 times1)-Inseln, die sich zu grösseren Inseln zusammenlegen. Die (2 times1)-Inseln sind bereits bei T mathrm sample = 136 K sehr reaktiv. Die quantitative Analyse der Abreaktion der (2 times1)-Inseln ergibt, dass die Reaktionsrate proportional zur Inselfläche und nicht zur Randlänge ist. Die Reaktionsordnung bezüglich theta mathrm(2 times1) ist sim 1. Unter der Annahme eines Vorfaktors k mathrm o von 10 13 s -1 wurde für diese Reaktion ein E* mathrm reac von 0.41 eV abgeschätzt. Für eine CO-Adsorption auf der (2 times2)-O-Überstruktur bei T mathrm sample < 130 K kommt es nicht zu einem Phasenübergang, sondern CO adsorbiert auf der (2 times2)-O-Struktur. Der RuO2-Film wurde bei Temperaturen zwischen 650 und 900 K auf der Ru(0001)-Probe aufgewachsen. Die Morphologie des Oxidfilms hängt stark von der Temperatur der Probe während des Wachstums Tprep ab. Bei Tprep sim 650 K ist die Morphologie überwiegend kinetisch bestimmt. Mit steigendener Temperatur bis Tprep = 900 K werden thermodynamische Effekte immer wichtiger. Die Dicke der Oxidschicht hängt nicht von Tprep ab und beträgt 7 AA bis 15 AA, was 2 bis 5 (Ru-O)-Monolagen entspricht. Die thermodynamische Stabilität der Morphologie ergibt sich aus Experimenten, in denen die Oxidschicht durch Heizen auf verschiedene Temperaturen partiell verdampft wurde. Der Film dampft nicht lageweise ab, sondern es entstehen Löcher in der ansonsten unverdampften Oxidschicht. Die Löcher haben eine charakteristische Form. Sie bilden Parallelogramme oder Rechtecke mit einer langen Achse in [001]-Richtung. Die Oberflächenenergie gamma 001 der einen Flanke der Löcher ist 2 bis 5 mal grösser als gamma bar110 der anderen Flanke. Beim Verdampfen des Films verbleiben die freigesetzten Ru-Atome des Oxids auf dem Substrat. Sie bilden dort eine komplizierte Morphologie von hexagonalen und runden Inseln. Die mikroskopischen Beobachtungen der chemischen Prozesse auf dem Film bestätigen die auf den makroskopischen Untersuchungen basierenden Modelle. Ein neuer Befund ist, dass die CO-Moleküle bei Raumtemperatur auf den Rulf -Reihen stabil adsorbieren, sobald die Ruzf -Reihen vollständig mit CO bedeckt sind. Der maximale Bedeckungsgrad theta mathrm CO1f ist 0.5, die COlf-Moleküle bilden lokal geordnete (2times1)-, c(2times2)- und (1times1)-Überstrukturen. Allerdings kommt es bei theta mathrm CO1f sim 0.5 zu einer langsamen Desorption. Wenn man ein k mathrm o von 10 16 s -1 annimmt, lässt sich ein E * mathrm des von 1.00 eV abschätzen. Unter der Annahme von Gamma mathrm o und k mathrm o von 10 13 s -1 lassen sich E* mathrm diff -Werte für O und CO zwischen 0.89 und 0.93 eV abschätzen, und für die Reaktion zwischen COlf und Olf ein Wert von E* mathrm reac sim 0.87 eV. Die Reaktionen zwischen Ozf und COlf, zwischen Olf und COzf sowie zwischen Olf und COlf verlaufen überwiegend statistisch. Manchmal wird eine leicht bevorzugte Reaktion quer zu den Rulf - und Ruzf -Reihen beobachtet. Unter steady-state-Bedingungen kann CO bei genügend grossem Partialdruck auf der Oberfläche adsorbieren. Unter steady-state-Bedingungen werden die gleichen COlf-Überstrukturen beobachtet wie in einer CO-Atmosphäre oder bei der Titration mit CO. Bei massiver Dosierung der Oxidoberfläche mit Oz und CO (sim 100 L) werden weisse Flecken beobachtet, die COlf ähnlich sind. Allerdings reagieren diese weder mit Oz noch mit CO, was auf einen anderen chemischen Zustand der RuO2-Oberfläche als den sauberen Zustand hinweist. / Scanning Tunneling Microscopy has already been established as a tool for the investigation of simple reaction mechanisms. The aim of this thesis was to apply this technique to study emmore complicated reactions. The oxidation of CO on Pd(111) and on a RuO2 film grown on Ru(0001) was investigated. Structural analyses of the O, CO and (CO+O) adlayers on Pd(111) and on RuO2 reveal the microscopic distributions of the adsorbates on the surfaces. Dynamic and quantitative analyses of the reactions yield the reaction kinetics and the reaction mechanisms in a direct way at the microscopic level. O atoms on Pd(111) at intermediate coverages (0.10

O presente trabalho estudou comparativamente, do ponto de vista fundamental, a reação de eletro-oxidação de monóxido de carbono (CO) em meio ácido, sobre Pt75Sn25/C, Pt65Ru35/C e Pt/C através da Espectroscopia de Impedância Eletroquímica. Os materiais foram preparados por redução com ácido fórmico e caracterizados fisicamente por EDX e DRX de alta intensidade e eletroquimicamente por voltametria. Previamente aos estudos de Impedância, foram realizados estudos potenciodinâmicos da reação de eletro-oxidação de CO adsorvido (?Stripping de CO?) e a oxidação de CO em uma solução saturada de CO. Para os materiais Pt65Ru35/C e Pt/C, estes estudos mostraram que há um deslocamento de potencial do inicio da oxidação para valores mais positivos quando CO está presente em solução se comparado a oxidação (stripping) de CO, devido a competição de sítios de adsorção entre moléculas de CO e H2O, responsáveis pela reação. Por outro lado, no material bimetálico Pt75Sn25/C a presença de CO em solução não influenciou de maneira significativa o potencial de inicio da oxidação, confirmando a ausência de adsorção competitiva neste material. A curva de polarização em estado estacionário revelou que, dentre os 3 materiais estudados, o material bimetálico Pt75Sn25/C apresentou a maior atividade eletrocatalítica, isto é, maiores densidades de correntes em menores sobrepotenciais. Este comportamento foi, em grande parte, esclarecido através dos experimentos de Espectroscopia de Impedância Eletroquímica. Com a Espectroscopia de Impedância Eletroquímica foi verificada a formação de espécies oxigenadas em Pt/C e em Pt65Ru35/C no intervalo de freqüências estudado, enquanto que em Pt75Sn25/C os diagramas de impedância revelaram um comportamento predominantemente capacitivo, indicando a ausência de reações de transferência de carga devido à oxidação da H2O para formar hidróxidos/óxidos na superfície do material. Também foi demonstrado que os processos relacionados a reação entre COads e espécies oxigenadas superficiais são mais rápidos em Pt75Sn25/C do que em Pt/C e Pt65Ru35/C, como ficou evidente no diagrama de Bode do ângulo de fase em função da freqüência. Mais especificamente, a menor resistência de transferência de carga para a reação em Pt75Sn25/C aparece em freqüências mais altas provavelmente devido à reação ocorrer com espécies oxigenadas já presentes na fase SnO2 presente no material. Por outro lado, os processos de adsorção são mais rápidos devido a menor energia de adsorção de CO sobre Pt, de acordo com os resultados encontrados por cálculos teóricos de DFT. / In this work, kinetic aspects of CO electro-oxidation on Pt/C, Pt75Sn25/C and Pt65Ru35/C prepared by chemical reduction with formic acid were studied by Electrochemical Impedance Spectroscopy (EIS). The bulk composition of the asprepared PtSn/C and PtRu/C bimetallic materials, analyzed by EDX, was 77:23 and 64:36, respectively. Using high intensity XDR measurements the bulk structure and phase determinations could be established. The analysis of the XRD profiles of Pt75Sn25/C revealed partial alloy formation and the presence of a SnO2 phase. For Pt65Ru35/C, no alloy formation was verified. Potentiodynamic oxidation of CO in a CO-saturated solution compared with CO stripping voltammetry pointed out the presence of competitive adsorption between CO and oxygen containing species on the surface of Pt/C and Pt65Ru35/C while for Pt75Sn25/C no competition for surface sites was verified. Impedance measurements were conducted in two different conditions: i) in the absence of CO in solution and ii) in a CO saturated solution. Provided by an equivalent circuit the charge transfer resistance (Rct), was obtained for the studied materials. The mean double layer capacitance (Cdl) was also estimated from circuit parameters and revealed its dependence on the carbon monoxide surface coverage (_CO). Furthermore, the relation between the _CO and the charge transfer resistance for the reaction is discussed. Using EIS it was demonstrated that the Rct for the carbon monoxide electro-oxidation reaction on Pt75Sn25/C is much lower than on Pt/C and Pt65Ru35/C, which was related to the presence of oxygen-containing species already present in the SnO2 phase as well as to the faster adsorption processes on this material compared to Pt/C and Pt65Ru35/C.

The subject of this work is the development of accurate frameworks to describe the electrochemical promotion of catalysis (EPOC) phenomenon. EPOC, also known as non-Faradaic electrochemical modification of catalytic activity (NEMCA), refers to the enhancement of the catalytic performance by application of current or potential in a catalyst/support system. Although this technology is of increasing interest nowadays in the field of modern electrochemistry and exhibits a great industrial potential, there are still just a few commercial applications, partly because the addressed phenomenon is not fully understood and has not been modelled to allow robust system design and control. For this purpose, a systematic multi-dimensional, isothermal, dynamic model is developed to address the EPOC phenomenon using the electrochemical oxidation of CO over Pt/YSZ as an illustrative system. The formulated model is based on partial differential equations (PDEs) accounting for the simulation of the mass and charge transport as well as the electrochemical phenomena taking place at the triple phase boundaries (TPBs, where the gas phase, the catalyst and the support are all in contact) implemented through a commercial finite element method (FEM) software (COMSOL Multiphysics). The constructed model is used in conjunction with experimental data for parameter estimation purposes, and a validated model is obtained. The results demonstrate that the effect in such a system is strongly non-Faradaic, with Faradaic rates 3 orders of magnidute lower than the non-Faradaic ones. The formulated model is extended to describe the various processes taking place in the electrochemically promoted CO combustion system at their characteristic length-scales. The proposed framework couples a macroscopic model simulating charge transport as well as electrochemical phenomena occuring at the TPBs implemented through a FEM-package and an in-house developed efficient implementation of the kinetic Monte Carlo method (kMC) for the simulation of reaction-diffusion micro-processes on the catalyst. Dynamic communication of macro- and micro-scopic models at the TPBs results in the construction of an integrated multi-scale system. Comparison between the multi-scale framework and a fully macroscopic model is carried out for several sets of operating conditions and differences between the two models steady-state outputs are presented and discussed. A detailed FEM/kMC model, regardless of accurately simulating the several phenomena at their appropriate length-scales, might not be suitable for large system simulations due to the high computational demand. To address this limitation, a computationally efficient coarse-graining methodology, the so-called gap-tooth method, is implemented. In this scheme the catalytic surface is efficiently represented by a small subset of the spatial domain (tooth) separated by gaps. While kMC simulations within each individual tooth (micro-lattice) are used to predict the corresponding evolution of the micro-processes, intelligent interpolation rules are employed to allow for the exchange (diffusion) of species between consecutive micro-lattices. A validated gap-tooth/kMC scheme is obtained and it is exploited for FEM/gap-tooth/kMC electrochemically promoted CO oxidation simulations achieving high computational savings.

Accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) is by far the predominant technology deployed for radiocarbon tracer studies. Applications are widespread from archaeology to biological, environmental, and pharmaceutical sciences. In spite of its excellent performance, AMS is expensive and complicated to operate. Consequently, alternative detection techniques for 14C are of great interest, with the vision of a compact, user-friendly, and inexpensive analytical method. Here, we report on the use of intracavity optogalvanic spectroscopy (ICOGS) for measurements of the 14C/12C ratio. This new detection technique was developed by Murnick et al. (2008). In the infrared (IR) region, CO2 molecules have strong absorption coefficients. The IR-absorption lines are narrow in line width and shifted for different carbon isotopes. These properties can potentially be exploited to detect 14CO2, 13CO2, or 12CO2 molecules unambiguously. In ICOGS, the sample is in the form of CO2 gas, eliminating the graphitization step that h is required in most AMS labs. The status of the ICOGS setup in Uppsala is presented. The system is operational but not yet fully developed. Data are presented for initial results that illustrate the dependence of the optogalvanic signal on various parameters, such as background and plasma-induced changes in the sample gas composition.

The physical and catalytic properties of silica supported platinum or rhodium model catalysts are studied under both ultra high vacuum (UHV) and elevated pressure reaction conditions (>1torr). Platinum or rhodium nanoparticles are vapor deposited onto a SiO2/Mo(112) surface and characterized using various surface analytical methods. CO chemisorption is utilized as a surface probe to estimate the concentration of various sites on the nanoparticles through thermal desorption spectroscopy (TDS) and infrared reflection absorption spectroscopy (IRAS) along with microscopy techniques to estimate particle size. The results are compared with hard sphere models of face centered cubic metals described as truncated cubo-octahedron. Results demonstrate the excellent agreement between chemisorption and hard sphere models in estimating the concentration of undercoordinated atoms on the nanoparticle surface. Surfaces are then subjected to high pressure reaction conditions to test the efficacy of utilizing the rate of a chemical reaction to obtain structural information about the surface. The surfaces are translated in-situ to a high pressure reaction cell where both structure insensitive and sensitive reactions are performed. Structure insensitive reactions (e.g. CO oxidation) allow a method to calculate the total active area on a per atom basis for silica supported platinum and rhodium model catalysts under reaction conditions. While structure sensitive reactions allow an estimate of the types of reaction sites, such as step sites (≤C7) under reaction conditions (e.g. n-heptane dehydrocyclization). High pressure structure sensitive reactions (e.g. ethylene hydroformylation) are also shown to drastically alter the morphology of the surface by dispersing nanoparticles leading to inhibition of catalytic pathways. Moreover, the relationships between high index single crystals, oxide supported nanoparticles, and high surface area technical catalysts are established. Overall, the results demonstrate the utility of model catalysts in understanding the structure-activity relationships in heterogeneous catalytic reactions and the usefulness of high pressure reactions as an analytical probe of surface morphology.