Raman studies of nanocomposites catalysts: temperature and pressure effects of CeAl, CeMn and NiAl oxides.

High temperature and pressure effects on the physicochemical properties of binary oxides catalysts were investigated. The nanocomposites catalysts comprising of CeAl, CeMn and NiAl were characterized through various physicochemical techniques. A study of the temperature and pressure induced phenomena monitored by Raman spectroscopy was proposed and discussed. Spectral modifications of the Raman modes belonging to the CeMn suggest structural changes in the solid due to the MnO2 phase oxidation with increasing temperature. The thermal expansion and lattice anharmonicity effects were observed on CeMn due to lack of stability of the lattice vacancies. The CeAl and NiAl composites presented crystallographic stability at low temperatures however, undertake a phase transformation of NiO/Al2O3 into NiAl2O4, mostly without any deformation in its structure with increasing the temperature. It was also inferred that the binary oxides are more stables in comparison with monoxides. Detailed pressure-dependent Raman measurements of the T2g phonon mode of CeMn and NiAl revealed that the pressure contributes to modify bonds length and reduces the particles sizes of the solids. On the contrary, high pressure on CeAl sample improved the stability with addition of Al2O3 in the CeO2 lattice. The results then suggest a good stability of CeAl and NiAl composite catalysts at high pressure and low temperature and show how to prospect of tuning the catalysis for surface reactions entirely through in situ spectroscopic investigations means.

Temperature and high pressure effects on the structural features of catalytic nanocomposites oxides by Raman spectroscopy.

Structural characterizations of nanostructured oxides were studied by X-ray diffraction (XRD), Raman and infrared spectroscopy. The oxides catalysts namely, SnO2, ZrO2, CeO2, MnOx, Al2O3 and TiO2 were prepared by a nanocasting route and the effect of the temperature and pressure on the stability of the solids was evaluated. Raman spectra showed that ZrO2 and TiO2 exhibited phase transitions at moderate temperatures whereas CeO2, SnO2 and MnOx had an effective creation of defects in their structures upon annealing at elevated temperatures. The results suggested also that the effect of the temperature on the particles growth is related to the type of oxide. In this regard, phase transition by up to 600°C accelerated the sintering of ZrO2 and CeO2 grains compared to TiO2, SnO2 and MnOx counterparts. Under hydrostatic pressures lower than 10GPa, rutile TiO2 and tetragonal ZrO2 exhibited pressure induced phase transition whereas CeO2 and SnO2 were stable at pressures close to 15GPa. The experiments revealed that the nanostructured SnO2 oxide exhibited stable performance at relatively high temperatures without phase transition or sintering, being suitable to be used as catalysts in the range of temperature and pressure studied.