Huddersfield Chemistry Research Featured in Hiden Newsletter
Fri, 25 Apr 2014 09:31:00 BST
Work carried out in the Materials and Catalysis Research Group has been featured in a recent edition of the Customer Research Review issued by Hiden Analytical Ltd, a major UK manufacturer of scientific instruments.
The Huddersfield research described is based on calorimetric adsorption methods, which have been developed in the Group for the characterisation of active sites on catalyst and adsorbent surfaces. The principle of these techniques is that, by progressively adsorbing a gaseous probe compound on a solid surface and monitoring the heat of adsorption, a profile can be obtained which describes the overall strengths, the distribution of strengths and the abundances of active sites (for instance acid sites in the case of a solid acid catalyst). This can be used to help understand the relationships between the structure of materials and their function. This in turn leads to improvements in activities and efficiences. Catalytic materials may be used in the chemical and other industries. Solid adsorbents find a range of uses, for example in filters for air purification.
The work described in the Hiden Customer Research Review was carried out by Dr Eko Andrijanto, who obtained his PhD in 2012 on the study of polymer-supported acid catalysts under the direction of Professor Rob Brown, and by co-worker Dr Elizabeth Dawson. The link with Hiden is that the system used for adsorption calorimetry relies on a Hiden mass spectrometer for gas analysis. The Hiden HPR 20 mass spectrometer currently in use had been running continuously for over 10 years before it was reconditioned by Hiden in 2013
