High speed laser activated membrane introduction mass spectrometric evaluation of bulk methylcyclohexane dehydrogenation catalysts

Laser activated membrane introduction mass spectrometry (LAMIMS) is a modification of membrane introduction mass spectrometry where a silicone membrane serves as a separator between an analyte stream and the vacuum of a quadrupole mass spectrometer. Carbon paper, commonly used as a fuel cell gas diffusion layer, has been overlaid upon the silicone membrane to serve as a support for catalyst array libraries that are heated by a CO2 laser during evaluation. The LAMIMS reactor is a closed environment permitting steady state exposure of the catalyst library to the reactant stream. In this work, Pt/Al2O3 catalysts for the dehydrogenation of methylcyclohexane (MCH) to toluene have been ranked by LAMIMS. Spot-to-spot evaluation times (after preconditioning) are 1 min in this study. The data suggests that by optimization of signal-to-noise and spot-to-spot dwell times, ranking can be conducted at substantially under a minute per array spot candidate