Catalyst Forest

ISIS is a particle physics laboratory in Oxfordshire, U.K that houses a synchrotron — or particle accelerator — which creates beams of neutrons and muons traveling at 84 percent of light speed. Scientists use the beams to explore physics, chemistry, biology and other fields on a subatomic level. The synchrotron's neutron beam has a special ability to view the atomic world in a detailed, non-destructive way. This image illustrates the science that can be done at ISIS.

Deactivation of catalysts is a major financial burden to the chemical industry and understanding how it happens is the key to preventing it. Using vibrational neutron spectroscopy on TOSCA, it was shown in one particularly crucial industrial process that methyl (CH3) groups had covered the surface of a commercial palladium metal catalyst. As the image illustrates, the methyl groups prevent the reactants from reaching the surface and so stop the reaction. This is the first time that methyl groups have been identified as the cause of such deactivation

--LiveScience Staff

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Credit: ISIS Facility