Chinese Journal of Catalysis ›› 2014, Vol. 35 ›› Issue (10): 1591-1608.DOI: 10.1016/S1872-2067(14)60082-6

• Review • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Multi-wavelength Raman spectroscopy study of supported vanadia catalysts:Structure identification and quantification

Zili Wu   

  1. Center for Nanophase Materials Sciences and Chemical Science Division, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, TN 37831, USA
  • Received:2014-04-28 Revised:2014-05-22 Online:2014-09-28 Published:2014-09-30
  • Supported by:

    This research was conducted at the Center for Nanophase Materials Sciences, which is sponsored at Oak Ridge National Laboratory by the Scientific User Facilities Division, Office of Basic Energy Sciences, U.S. Department of Energy. Part of the work including the synthesis of ceria nanoshapes was supported by the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science, Office of Basic Energy Sciences, Chemical Sciences, Geosciences, and Biosciences Division.

Abstract:

Revealing the structure of supported metal oxide catalysts is a prerequisite for establishing the structure-catalysis relationship. Among a variety of characterization techniques, multi-wavelength Raman spectroscopy, combining resonance Raman and non-resonance Raman with different excitation wavelengths, has recently emerged as a particularly powerful tool in not only identifying but also quantifying the structure of supported metal oxide clusters. In this review, we make use of two supported vanadia systems, VOx/SiO2 and VOx/CeO2, as examples to showcase how one can employ this technique to investigate the heterogeneous structure of active oxide clusters and to understand the complex interaction between the oxide clusters and the support. The qualitative and quantitative structural information gained from the multi-wavelength Raman spectroscopy can be utilized to provide fundamental insights for designing more efficient supported metal oxide catalysts.

Key words: Multi-wavelength, Raman spectroscopy, Resonance Raman, Vanadia, Silica, Ceria