Super-Resolution Microscopy Applications to Catalysis

Catalysts increase the rate of a chemical reaction without being consumed. Their presence in the chemical industry is ubiquitous, with the production of ∼90% of all chemicals being assisted by catalyst materials [1]. Ideally, the optimization of these catalytic processes is done using knowledge of the relationship between the performance of the catalyst and its local structure and composition. Traditionally, these relationships are established using characterizations at the ensemble level. Therefore, interpreting data is done under the assumption that all catalyst particles behave similarly, even though structure and composition is known to vary greatly from particle to particle. Clearly then, the characterization of catalyst particles should ideally be performed at the single particle level [2, 3], with a temporal resolution on the order of the turnover rate of the reaction under study and a spatial resolution on the order of the typical length scale of the catalyst (e.g., its size or the size of its pores).