9224854 Haller This award will support collaborative research between Gary Haller, Yale University, and Costas Vayenas, University of Patras, Greece. The collaboration will investigate nonfaradaic electrochemical modification of catalyst activity (NEMCA) on Pt and Pd catalysts. Three reactions will be studied: competitive hydrogenation of toluene and benzene, methanol oxidation, and neopentane hydrogenolysis. The NEMCA effect will be investigated spectroscopically with scanning tunneling microscopy and extended X-ray absorption fine structure. The investigators will pursue complementary physical characterization of the NEMCA effect. The catalytic reactions will be carried out in both laboratories. The STM work will be performed in Patras and the EXAFS at Yale. In both cases, the spectroscopy will be performed in situ, and, to make these studies as complementary as possible, they will be perfomed using the same in situ reaction conditions. ***
