ISIS Neutron and Muon Source Data Journal

The Active Site in Iron Molybdate Catalysts for Selective Methanol Oxidation

Abstract: Formaldehyde is an industrially important chemical (world production 32 million tonnes in 2006) currently made from methanol using an iron molybdate catalyst. Reaction occurs at the surface of these particles, but surface sites are not represented by the bulk. Recent work, using molybdenum oxide support on iron oxide shows that the molydbdenum segregates at the surface and is present in the catalytically active phase. Optical spectroscopy of methanol adsorbed on these catalysts has given valuable information regarding the reaction mechanism. Unfortunately, under higher temperature conditions the catalysts become black and absorb light strongly, preventing this measurement being made. We aim to use inelastic neutron scattering to provide analogous vibrational speactra and characterise the reaction intermediates on these black samples.

Principal Investigator: Dr Ian Silverwood
Experimenter: Dr Stephanie Richardson
Experimenter: Ms Catherine Brookes
Experimenter: Professor Michael Bowker
Experimenter: Dr Emma Gibson
Experimenter: Dr Peter Wells
Local Contact: Professor Stewart Parker

DOI: 10.5286/ISIS.E.RB1510126

ISIS Experiment Number: RB1510126

Publisher: STFC ISIS Neutron and Muon Source

Data format: RAW/Nexus
Select the data format above to find out more about it.

Data Citation

The recommended format for citing this dataset in a research publication is as:
[author], [date], [title], [publisher], [doi]

For Example:
Dr Ian Silverwood et al; (2015): The Active Site in Iron Molybdate Catalysts for Selective Methanol Oxidation, STFC ISIS Neutron and Muon Source, https://doi.org/10.5286/ISIS.E.RB1510126

Data is released under the CC-BY-4.0 license.