Metal Nanocatalysts, Their Synthesis and Size Dependent Covalent Bond Catalysis: Instrumentation for Characterization under Reaction Conditions

Colloidal chemistry is used to control the size, shape and composition of metal nanoparticles usually in the 1-10 nm range.  In-situ methods are used to characterize the size, structure (electronic and atomic), bonding, composition and oxidation states under reaction conditions.  These methods include sum frequency generation nonlinear optical spectroscopy (SFG), ambient pressure X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (APXPS) and high pressure scanning tunneling microscope (STM).  The catalytic behavior depends on the oxidation state, coordination number, crystallographic orientation of metal sites and bonding and orientation of surface adsorbates.