In Situ Observation of Transient Reaction Phenomena Occurring on Zeolite Catalysts with the Aid of Positron Emission Profiling

Abstract

The total concentrations of reactants and products within a flow‐through reactor can be monitored as a function of both position and time by detecting gamma photons arising from the radioactive positron decay of injected 11 C nuclei. The method was demonstrated by directly observing catalyst preconditioning and deactivation of a Pt/H‐mordenite catalyst bed during the industrially important hexane hydroisomerization reaction.