Scale-up of cluster beam deposition to the gram scale with the matrix assembly cluster source for heterogeneous catalysis (propylene combustion)
Rongsheng Cai,
Lu Cao,
Ross Griffin,
Sarayute Chansai,
Christopher Hardacre,
Richard E. Palmer
Affiliations
Rongsheng Cai
College of Engineering, Swansea University, Bay Campus, Fabian Way, Swansea SA1 8EN, United Kingdom
Lu Cao
Nanoscale Physics Research Laboratory, School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Birmingham, Birmingham B15 2TT, United Kingdom
Ross Griffin
Nanoscale Physics Research Laboratory, School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Birmingham, Birmingham B15 2TT, United Kingdom
Sarayute Chansai
Department of Chemical Engineering and Analytical Science, The University of Manchester, The Mill, Sackville Street, Manchester M13 9PL, United Kingdom
Christopher Hardacre
Department of Chemical Engineering and Analytical Science, The University of Manchester, The Mill, Sackville Street, Manchester M13 9PL, United Kingdom
Richard E. Palmer
College of Engineering, Swansea University, Bay Campus, Fabian Way, Swansea SA1 8EN, United Kingdom
Cluster beam deposition is a solvent-free method to prepare films of nanoparticles, one obvious application being heterogeneous catalysis. To address the problem of low cluster deposition rates, a novel cluster beam source, the “Matrix Assembly Cluster Source” was invented recently. Following the proof of principle studies, here, we demonstrate a further scale-up by 2 orders of magnitude, equivalent to reaching a production of ∼10 mg of clusters (Au100) per hour. This allows the preparation of cluster-decorated powder catalysts at the gram scale, comfortably sufficient for practical catalysis studies of novel materials at the research level, as demonstrated here by the catalytic combustion of propylene.
