Environmental Transmission Electron Microscopy Study of Diesel Carbon Soot Combustion under Simulated Catalytic-Reaction Conditions

Environmental transmission electron microscopy (ETEM) is used to monitor the catalytic combustion of diesel carbon soot upon exposure to molecular oxygen at elevated temperatures by using a gas-injection specimen heating holder. The reaction conditions simulated in the ETEM experiments reconstruct real conditions effectively. This study demonstrated for the first time that soot combustion occurs at the soot-catalyst interface for both Ag/CeO2 and Cu/BaO/La2O3 catalysts.