The Why Files
Specht_Sarah
Sarah Specht, graduate student, and Alyssa Love, graduate student, Hermans group, Chemistry Department
"Boron nitride nanotubes imaged part way through catalyzing a reaction of propane and oxygen to propene and water. The nanotubes begin as fluffy, stringy tubes and are converted to ordered, towering monoliths during catalysis.
Catalysts enable chemical reactions to take place faster and use less energy, making them highly valuable in large-scale reactions. However, the starting material is not always the active catalyst. This image was taken part way into a reaction and shows the unexpected re-organizing of the catalyst, which we hypothesize is how the catalyst becomes active.
Scanning electron microscopy provides a visual method for understanding how a catalyst restructures. The image was collected on a scanning electron microscope (LEO Supra55 VP) using an accelerating voltage of 2 keV."
Specht_Sarah
Sarah Specht, graduate student, and Alyssa Love, graduate student, Hermans group, Chemistry Department
"Boron nitride nanotubes imaged part way through catalyzing a reaction of propane and oxygen to propene and water. The nanotubes begin as fluffy, stringy tubes and are converted to ordered, towering monoliths during catalysis.
Catalysts enable chemical reactions to take place faster and use less energy, making them highly valuable in large-scale reactions. However, the starting material is not always the active catalyst. This image was taken part way into a reaction and shows the unexpected re-organizing of the catalyst, which we hypothesize is how the catalyst becomes active.
Scanning electron microscopy provides a visual method for understanding how a catalyst restructures. The image was collected on a scanning electron microscope (LEO Supra55 VP) using an accelerating voltage of 2 keV."