New technique developed for measurement of temperature distribution inside single catalyst particle

March 07, 2024

The size of zeolite catalyst particles used in typical industrial processes is generally tens to hundreds of microns. However, the currently used thermocouples and infrared thermal imaging can only measure the surface temperature of the catalyst, and the spatial resolution is in millimeters. 
To solve this problem, the research team led by Prof. YE Mao and Prof. LIU Zhongmin from the Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics (DICP) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) developed an imaging technique with a spatial resolution of 800 nm, realizing the dynamic measurement of the three-dimensional spatiotemporal distribution of temperature inside the industrial zeolite catalyst particle during the methanol-to-olefins (MTO) reactions.
They developed this up-conversion confocal microscopic imaging technique by implanting the up-conversion nano-thermometer with high-temperature resistance into industrial zeolite catalyst particles using a microfluidic chip.
Furthermore, the researchers developed multimodal imaging techniques, i.e., confocal fluorescence and confocal infrared microscopy, and investigated the effects of zeolite contents and particle size on the spatiotemporal distribution of temperature inside the catalyst particles. They revealed the utilization of active sites and the evolutions of reaction intermediates during MTO reactions affected by heterogeneous temperature distribution.

From: EurekAlert!