Topography and morphology of multicomponent catalytic materials based on Co, Ce and Pd oxides deposited on metallic structured carriers studied by AFM/Raman interlaced microscopes

A system of interfaced AFM and Raman microscopes was used to study heterogeneity of complex cat- alytic materials providing information on both the topography and the chemical composition of the surface in one measurement. The catalysts surface was examined at various stages of their preparation: precalcination of steel, washcoating, impregnation and doping. It has been shown that the surface of the precalcined steel sheets is covered mostly by -Al 2 O 3 although there are places where -Fe 2 O 3 and Fe 3 O 4 are also present. Washcoating of the precalcined sheets gives only partly uniform grain distribution of CeO 2 . Impregnation with cobalt leads to formation of uniform coverage of Co 3 O…