We are developing a new family of heterogeneous catalysts for hydrogenation catalysis. Catalyst synthesis is accomplished using colloidal polymerization chemistry which produce high surface area xerogel catalysts. These xerogels have been synthesized by one-step sol gel chemistry. These catalysts contain ruthenium and modifiers such as gold occluded or incorporated in a titanium oxide matrix. The materials, especially the modified systems exhibit favorable performance in microreactor evaluations for hydrogenation reactions and exhibit high activities. Nanostructural studies have revealed that the materials contain dispersed catalyst clusters which are desirable microstructures for the catalysis since the majority of the atoms are exposed to catalysis and are potentially active sites.

The composition and atomic structure of the xerogel catalysts containing ruthenium and other metals have been examined using our in-house developments of environmental high resolution electron microscopy (EHREM) the atomic scale [1-3] and low voltage high resolution SEM (LVSEM)[4] methods.