Journal of the American Chemical Society
Journal of the American Chemical Society
5 years ago

Single-Molecule Fluorescence Microscopy Reveals Local Diffusion Coefficients in the Pore Network of an Individual Catalyst Particle

Single-Molecule Fluorescence Microscopy Reveals Local Diffusion Coefficients in the Pore Network of an Individual Catalyst Particle
Alexey V. Kubarev, Frank C. Hendriks, Pieter C. A. Bruijnincx, Maarten B. J. Roeffaers, Zoran Ristanović, Florian Meirer, Bert M. Weckhuysen, Eelco T. C. Vogt
We used single-molecule fluorescence microscopy to study self-diffusion of a feedstock-like probe molecule with nanometer accuracy in the macropores of a micrometer-sized, real-life fluid catalytic cracking (FCC) particle. Movies of single fluorescent molecules allowed their movement through the pore network to be reconstructed. The observed tracks were classified into three different states by machine learning and all found to be distributed homogeneously over the particle. Most probe molecules (88%) were immobile, with the molecule most likely being physisorbed or trapped; the remainder was either mobile (8%), with the molecule moving inside the macropores, or showed hybrid behavior (4%). Mobile tracks had an average diffusion coefficient of D = 8 × 10–14 ± 1 × 10–13 m2 s–1, with the standard deviation thought to be related to the large range of pore sizes found in FCC particles. The developed methodology can be used to evaluate, quantify and map heterogeneities in diffusional properties within complex hierarchically porous materials.

Publisher URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/jacs.7b07139

DOI: 10.1021/jacs.7b07139

You might also like
Discover & Discuss Important Research

Keeping up-to-date with research can feel impossible, with papers being published faster than you'll ever be able to read them. That's where Researcher comes in: we're simplifying discovery and making important discussions happen. With over 19,000 sources, including peer-reviewed journals, preprints, blogs, universities, podcasts and Live events across 10 research areas, you'll never miss what's important to you. It's like social media, but better. Oh, and we should mention - it's free.

  • Download from Google Play
  • Download from App Store
  • Download from AppInChina

Researcher displays publicly available abstracts and doesn’t host any full article content. If the content is open access, we will direct clicks from the abstracts to the publisher website and display the PDF copy on our platform. Clicks to view the full text will be directed to the publisher website, where only users with subscriptions or access through their institution are able to view the full article.