Applications of Electron Microscopy in Heterogeneous Catalysis

Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) is a convenient technique for catalyst characterization. A variety of structural and chemical information of catalysts can be obtained by operating TEM in different modes. The recent developments in TEM, particularly for the aberration corrections, enable studying catalyst at the atomic scale. We briefly cover the TEM theory, developments, and other important topics at the beginning. Several case studies of using TEM as a tool to study the catalysts with well-defined structures are provided later in the chapter. The examples in case studies include atomic surface structures of oxide supports, shapes of supported metals in both vacuum and gaseous conditions, bimetallic catalysts, and single atom catalysts. In each case, the underlying mechanisms of catalytic behaviors are briefly discussed based on the results derived from TEM and other studies.