Pd catalyst poisoning in the electro-oxidation of methanol and formic acid: A combined neutron scattering and modulation excitation study

A wide range of chemical processes involving liquid phase reactions within which a solvent is in excess compared with the reagents. This dilutes the concentration of the reactive species and can often lead to difficulties in observing them. We propose to examine the use of time resolved measurements where the system undergoes a periodic modulation to enhance the sensitivity of the techniques to examine the parts of the system which change versus the unchanging elements, i.e. the solvent. Herein, neutron scattering will be employed to probe the changes in structure of palladium based electrocatalysts for use in fuel cells for clean energy applications. The neutron scattering is complementary to recently obtained X-ray data and will enable the active structure of the working catalyst to be determined and therefore provide insights into developing more efficient catalysts in the future.