Robust In Situ Magnetic Resonance Imaging of Heterogeneous Catalytic Hydrogenation with and without Hyperpolarization

Abstract

Abstract Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is a powerful technique to characterize reactors during operating catalytic processes. However, MRI studies of heterogeneous catalytic reactions are particularly challenging because the low spin density of reacting and product fluids (for gas phase reactions) as well as magnetic field inhomogeneity, caused by the presence of a solid catalyst inside a reactor, exacerbate already low intrinsic sensitivity of this method. While hyperpolarization techniques such as parahydrogen induced polarization (PHIP) can substantially increase the NMR signal intensity, this general strategy to enable MR imaging of working heterogeneous catalysts to date remains underexplored. Here, we present a new type of model catalytic reactors for MRI that allow the characterization of a heterogeneous hydrogenation reaction aided by the PHIP signal enhancement, but also suitable for the imaging of regular non‐polarized gases. These catalytic systems permit exploring the complex interplay between chemistry and fluid‐dynamics that are typically encountered in practical systems, but mostly absent in simple batch reactors. High stability of the model reactors at catalytic conditions and their fabrication simplicity make this approach compelling for in situ studies of heterogeneous catalytic processes by MRI.