Experience of Using DLS to Study the Particle Sizes of Active Component in the Catalysts Based on the Oxide and Non-Oxide Supports

The present study reports the use of the dynamic light scattering (DLS) method to analyze metal nanoparticle sizes in supported catalysts (as a model system for different metal-oxide nanocomposites, ceramics, etc.). The selective dissolution of matrices has been used to transform solids to sols for DLS analysis. DLS/STS (from solid to sol) technique was tested on a wide number of different sets of supported metal catalysts (Pt, Pd, Ru metals and Al2O3, SiO2, TiO2, C3N4, carbon and polymers as supports). The transmission electron microscopy and X-ray diffraction (TEM/XRD) results for the initial supported catalysts and the DLS results for the sols prepared from them showed good agreement with each other. Moreover, it has been shown that this approach can identify the minor contamination of catalysts by large particles or aggregates which are difficult to detect by TEM/XRD.