ISIS Neutron and Muon Source Data Journal

INS investigation of hydrogen on a copper catalyst

Abstract: Hydrogen is a crucial component in methanol synthesis. It is widely believed that H2 dissociates on the copper. The hydrogen atoms then migrate to adsorbed CO or CO2 and progressively hydrogenate it to methanol. However, there is no direct evidence for adsorbed hydrogen on copper. Temperature programmed desorption measurements (TPD) shows that hydrogen is desorbed from Cu nanoparticles around 320 K, TPD of the methanol synthesis catalyst, Cu/ZnO/Al2O3, shows desorption peaks at ~300 and ~450 K. The 300 K peak is assigned to a surface hydride and the 450 K peak to subsurface hydrogen. Neither of these species has been detected by spectroscopy. Inelastic neutron scattering with its particular sensitivity to hydrogen is the ideal tool to investigate the state of hydrogen on/in a catalyst. We propose to use INS to study hydrogen on Cu nanoparticles and also the methanol synthesis catalyst, Cu/ZnO/Al2O3.

Public release date: 22 February 2029

Principal Investigator: Dr Arunabhiram Chutia
Local Contact: Professor Stewart Parker
Experimenter: Mr Matis Ferrini

DOI: 10.5286/ISIS.E.RB2510736-1

Parent DOI: 10.5286/ISIS.E.RB2510736

ISIS Experiment Number: RB2510736

Part Number: 1

Date of Experiment: 03 June 2026

Publisher: STFC ISIS Neutron and Muon Source

Data format: RAW/Nexus
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Data Citation

The recommended format for citing this dataset in a research publication is as:
[author], [date], [title], [publisher], [doi]

For Example:
Dr Arunabhiram Chutia et al; (2026): INS investigation of hydrogen on a copper catalyst, STFC ISIS Neutron and Muon Source, https://doi.org/10.5286/ISIS.E.RB2510736-1

Data is released under the CC-BY-4.0 license.