Longitudinal Relaxation (T 1) of Methane/Hydrogen Mixtures for Operando Characterization of Gas-Phase Reactions

Catalytic hydrogenation reactions are important in a modern hydrogen-based society. To optimize these gas-phase reactions, a deep understanding of heat, mass, and momentum transfer inside chemical reactors is required. Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) measurements can be used to obtain spatially resolved values of temperature, gas composition, and velocity in the usually opaque catalytic macrostructures. For this, the desired values are calculated from measured NMR parameters like signal amplitude, T ₁, or T ₂. However, information on how to calculate target values from these NMR parameters in gases is scarce, especially for mixtures of gases. To enable detailed NMR studies of hydrogenation reactions, we investigated the T ₁ relaxation of methane and hydrogen, which are two gases commonly present in hydrogenation reactions. To achieve industrially relevant conditions, the temperatures are varied from 290 to 600 K and the pressure from 1 bara to 5 bara, using different mixtures of methane and hydrogen. The results show that hydrogen, which is usually considered to be nondetectable in standard MRI sequences, can be measured at high concentrations, starting at a pressure of 3 bara even at temperatures above 400 K. In the investigated parameter range, the absolute T ₁ values of hydrogen show only small dependence on temperature, pressure, and composition, while T ₁ of methane is highly dependent on all three parameters. At a pressure of 5 bara, the measured values of T ₁ for methane agree very well with theoretical predictions, so that they can also be used for temperature calculations. Further, it can be shown that the same measurement technique can be used to accurately calculate gas ratios inside each voxel. In conclusion, this study covers important aspects of spatially resolved operando NMR measurements of gas-phase properties during hydrogenation reactions at industrially relevant conditions to help improve chemical processes in the gas phase.

A large fixed bed reactor for MRI operando experiments at elevated temperature and pressure

Recently, in situ studies using nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) have shown the possibility to monitor local transport phenomena of gas-phase reactions inside opaque structures. Their application to heterogeneously catalyzed reactions remains challenging due to inherent temperature and pressure constraints. In this work, an NMR-compatible reactor was designed, manufactured, and tested, which can endure high temperatures and increased pressure. In temperature and pressure tests, the reactor withstood pressures up to 28 bars at room temperature and temperatures over 400 °C and exhibited only little magnetic shielding. Its applicability was demonstrated by performing the CO₂ methanation reaction, which was measured operando for the first time by using a 3D magnetic resonance spectroscopic imaging sequence. The reactor design is described in detail, allowing its easy adaptation for different chemical reactions and other NMR measurements under challenging conditions.

Particle characterization using multiple scattering decorrelation methods: hard-sphere model system

Applying static light scattering experiments, we characterize colloidal particles that are used as model hard-sphere systems in experiments investigating their crystallization kinetics. The particles comprise of a compact core of poly(methyl methacrylate) and short polymer hairs grafted onto the surface. We use a contrast variation procedure to determine the refractive index variation within the particles and observe that one component of the binary mixture used as a solvent penetrates the particles and masks completely the small polymer hairs. Making use of the determined refractive index variation, we obtain the average particle radius and its polydispersity from measurements of the particle form factor close to its minimae. The scattered intensity has been corrected carefully for multiple scattering contributions applying dynamic light scattering measurements with multiple scattering decorrelation. We obtain a mean particle radius of &Rmacr;=435+/-4 nm and a polydispersity of sigma=2.5%, a resolution that has not been achieved with light scattering experiments before.

Enhanced structural correlations accelerate diffusion in charge-stabilized colloidal suspensions

Theoretical calculations for colloidal charge-stabilized suspensions and hard-sphere suspensions show that hydrodynamic interactions yield a qualitatively different particle concentration dependence of the short-time self-diffusion coefficient. The effect, however, is numerically small and hardly accessible by conventional light-scattering experiments. By applying multiple-scattering decorrelation equipment and a careful data analysis we show that the theoretical prediction for charged particles is in agreement with our experimental results from aqueous polystyrene latex suspensions.

Observation of Oriented Close-Packed Lattice Planes in Polycrystalline Hard-Sphere Solids

We report time-resolved Bragg scattering experiments on solidifying colloidal suspensions of hard spheres. The polar angle-averaged, integrated intensity of the (111) and (311) reflections show a transient, two-step behavior below melting, which depends in a complex way on the volume fraction and is not present for (200) or (220). Detailed analysis of the full two-dimensional scattering pattern reveals intensity maxima of sixfold symmetry close to the position of the (111) and (311) Debye-Scherrer rings. These can be explained assuming oriented crystals with close-packed planes parallel to the container walls. We show that the observed temporal behavior is due to competing homogeneous and heterogeneous nucleation and growth scenarios. Copyright 1998 Academic Press.

Effect of uniaxial deformation on the optical scattering losses of a semicrystalline fluorocopolymer

Both small- and wide-angle light scattering as well as transmission measurements have been used to investigate the optical scattering losses of a vinylidene difluoride-tetrafluoroethylene-hexafluoropropylene copolymer crystallized from the melt. The main origin of the scattering loss is the wide-angle light scattering from the spherulitic superstructure. Uniaxial deformation transforms this structure into a fiber morphology. The attenuation of fibers has been measured for light propagating both parallel and perpendicular to the orientation axis. For both directions, the attenuation decreases with increasing draw ratio. Annealing of the fibers while keeping their ends fixed is an effective method to reduce the attenuation further, to a low value as close to that of the melt.