Calcined hydro
talci
te wi
th or wi
thou
t added me
tal (Mg(Al)O, P
t/Mg(Al)O and P
t,Sn/Mg(Al)O) have been inves
tiga
ted wi
th
in situ X-ray pho
toelec
tron spec
troscopy (XPS) during e
thane dehydrogena
tion experimen
ts. The
tempera
ture in
the analysis chamber was 450 °C and
the gas pressure was in
the range 0.3–1 mbar. Dep
th profiling of calcined hydro
talci
te and pla
tinum ca
talys
ts under reac
tion, oxida
tion and in hydrogen–wa
ter mix
ture was performed by varying
the pho
ton energy, covering an analysis dep
th of 10–21 Å. I
t was observed
tha
t the Mg/Al ra
tio in
the Mg(Al)O crys
talli
tes does no
t vary significan
tly in
the analysis dep
th range s
tudied. This resul
t indica
tes
tha
t Mg and Al are homogeneously dis
tribu
ted in
the Mg(Al)O crys
talli
tes. Ca
taly
tic
tes
ts have shown
tha
t the ini
tial ac
tivi
ty of a P
t,Sn/Mg(Al)O ca
talys
t increases during an ac
tiva
tion period consis
ting of several cycles of reduc
tion–dehydrogena
tion–oxida
tion. The Sn/Mg ra
tio in a P
t,Sn/Mg(Al)O ca
talys
t was followed during several such cycles, and was found
to increase during
the ac
tiva
tion period, probably due
to a process where
tin spreads over
the carrier ma
terial and covers an increasing frac
tion of
the Mg(Al)O surface. The resul
ts fur
ther indica
te
tha
t spreading of
tin occurs under reduc
tion condi
tions.
A PtSn2 alloy was studied separately. The surface of the alloy was enriched in Sn during reduction and reaction conditions at 450 °C. Binding energies were determined and indicated that Sn on the particle surface is predominantly in an oxidised state under reaction conditions, while Pt and a fraction of Sn is present as a reduced Pt–Sn alloy.