This award will support Professor Lanny D. Schmidt of the University of Minnesota in a research collaboration with Professor Miguel Jose Yacaman of the Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico (UNAM) in Mexico City, Mexico. The researchers intend to establish on a more formal basis an ongoing program on heterogeneous catalysis. In particular, they plan to prepare catalysts, characterize their reactivity in different atmospheres, and determine how micro- structure affects reactivity. Attention will be directed at Rh-Ce catalyst particles in the NO+CO reaction and Pt-Sn particles in hydrocarbon hydrogenolysis and isomerization. These systems are used as automotive pollution catalysts and petroleum refining catalysts, respectively and are therefore of great importance to both the U.S. and Mexico. This award will help to promote the exchange of students, senior personnel, catalyst samples, and TEM micrographics between both institutions. The group at the University of Minnesota has been primarily interested in the relation of structure and reactivity while the UNAM group will contribute their expertise in micro-structure characterization.
