A SMALL-ANGLE NEUTRON-SCATTERING INVESTIGATION OF COKE DEPOSITS ON CATALYSTS

Small-angle neutron scattering (SANS) has been used to characterize a silica-alumina catalyst before and after coke deposition. The reaction used to deactivate the catalyst was the isomerization of xylenes. The results showed that, while most of the surface area in this type of catalyst resides in the ultrafine pores of diameters less than 1 nm occupying about 7 % of the sample volume, there appears to be no coke deposition in these pores. The coke seems to coat the solid structures of 3.3-nm diameter which are of capillary shape. Such structures occupy about 6% of the sample volume. The coke was found to correspond to a monolayer of composition CH03 with a density of 1660 kg/m3. © 1990, American Chemical Society. All rights reserved.