Development of a reactive cell for Exafs in∼situ studies of automotive postcombustion catalytic converters

Abstract

This paper presents a new in situ X-ray reaction cell dedicated to in situ X-ray absorption studies of postcombustion catalytic converter. This device has been developed to collect Exafs spectra during the chemical reactions, the sample being placed under the flow of a complex mixture of reactive gases (NO, CO, N₂,...). Particular attention has been paid to the material and the design of the sample holder. More precisely, a specific geometry of the sample holder has been elaborated in order to study directly the catalyst as it is in the converter. Also, we have tried here to respect the particular reaction conditions namely high temperature and high space velocity associated to postcombustion.