Dynamic Light Scattering for Studying Supported Metal Catalysts

A new procedure for studying the sizes of metal nanoparticles in supported catalysts by dynamic light scattering (DLS) is proposed. The applicability of DLS to the determination of the particle sizes of active components in a set of different supported metal catalysts, which were previously characterized by TEM and XRD analysis, was found. A good agreement between data obtained using different methods was demonstrated. The application of the new approach makes it possible to reliably identify large nanoparticles, which are often difficult to identify reliably using standard methods due to their small amount in the samples. The procedure proposed is characterized by high rapidity, and it allows one to obtain information on particle sizes 20–30 min after the start of analysis. [Equation not available: see fulltext.].