Exploring hydrothermally grown potassium titanate fibers by STEM-in-SEM/EDX and XRD.
During lab-scale experiments on the reforming of methanol by means of water at supercritical conditions (T > 374 degrees C, p > 22.1 MPa), a tubular reactor with a titanium liner was exposed to an aqueous solvent containing methanol (5 wt%) and KHCO3 (0.3 wt%). At the end of the run, a fibrous precipitate was found at two positions in the reactor. The material was studied in a field emission scanning electron microscope equipped with an energy dispersive X-ray analysis unit (FESEM/EDX). A thin-film support technique using carbon-filmed TEM grids was applied to perform scanning transmission-type imaging (STEM-in-SEM operation) and transmission current measurements. The analysis of the hydrothermally grown fibers resulted in a potassium titanate species composed of approximately K2TiO3, which has been confirmed by X-ray diffraction (XRD).
Habicht
Wilhelm
W
Forschungszentrum Karlsruhe, Institut für Technische Chemie, ITC-CPV, P.O. Box 3640, D-76021 Karlsruhe, Germany. wilhelm.habicht@itc-cpv.fzk.de
Boukis
Nikolaos
N
Franz
Günter
G
Walter
Olaf
O
Dinjus
Eckhard
E