This Americas Program award will fund a cooperative research project, involving sol-gel processing and characterization of supported metal catalysts, between Dr. Richard D. Gonzalez of Tulane University and Professors Ricardo Gomez Romero and Tessy Lopez Goerne of the Autonomous Metropolitan University of Mexico at Iztapalapa. The focus of this proposed study will be on sol-gel processing of silica and alumina. A new series of high surface area catalysts in which the metal is in a highly dispersed state will be prepared. Sol-gel processing will lead to the formation of more homogenous-supported metal catalysts with a much more uniform distribution of particle sizes. The reforming catalysts prepared by sol-gel processing have the potential to compete favorably with industrial catalysts in use. This cooperative research project will share facilities available at Tulane University and Mexico. The synthetic procedures and catalyst characterization studies will be performed at Tulane while catalytic studies will be performed in Mexico.
