Probing adsorbate structure in catalytic materials using inelastic neutron scattering

Catalysts play an important, yet shrouded, role in our everyday lives. From a purely chemical standpoint, they provide a method for accelerating (or in rare cases, decelerating) the rate of chemical reactions. Catalysts are therefore used in a wide variety of biological and notably industrial processes to produce many useful products. For example, the majority of reactions responsible for the formation of plastics (and their ubiquitous presence in the world) are possible through catalytic processes. A fundamental understanding of the operation of catalysts at the atomic level has long been the ultimate goal of many chemists. An understanding of the intricacies of these processes would result in our ability to tailor catalytic reactions to ultimately develop more efficient processes.