Development of FTIR Spectroscopy Methodology for Characterization of Boron Species in FCC Catalysts

Abstract

Fluid Catalytic Cracking (FCC) has maintained its crucial role in refining decades after its initial introduction owing to the flexibility it has as a process as well as the developments in its key enabler, the FCC catalyst. Boron-based technology (BBT) for passivation of contaminant metals in FCC catalysts represents one such development. In this contribution we describe Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR) characterization of boron-containing catalysts to identify the phase and structural information of boron. We demonstrate that FTIR can serve as a sensitive method to differentiate boron trioxide and borate structures with a detection limit at the 1000 ppm level. The FTIR analysis validates that the boron in the FCC catalysts studied are in the form of small borate units and confirms that the final FCC catalyst product contains no detectable isolated boron trioxide phase. Since boron trioxide is regulated in some parts of the world, this novel FTIR methodology can be highly beneficial for further FCC catalyst development and its industrial application at refineries around the world. This new method can also be applied on systems beyond catalysts, since the characterization of boron-containing materials is needed for a wide range of other applications in the fields of glass, ceramics, semiconductors, agriculture, and pharmaceuticals.

Layered Double Hydroxide Templated Synthesis of Amorphous NiCoFeB as a Multifunctional Electrocatalyst for Overall Water Splitting and Rechargeable Zinc–Air Batteries

“…We also characterized the TMB sample with FT‐IR spectroscopy that confirms the formation of M(BO 3 ) species (Figure S7, Supporting Information). [ 45–47 ] 11 B‐NMR spectroscopy of the TMB sample also shows a chemical shift of 10.2 ppm that agrees well with the three‐coordinated borate (sp 2 hybridized boron) species that are not in the rings (Figure S8, Supporting Information). [ 48,49 ]…”

Facile Synthesis of Carbon- and Nitrogen-Doped Iron Borate as a Highly Efficient Single-Component Heterogeneous Photo-Fenton Catalyst under Simulated Solar Irradiation

“…The elemental mappings in Figure 2d-h indicate that the elements B, C, Fe, N, and O are homogeneously distributed throughout the irregularly-shaped particle, thus confirming the successful doping of the as-prepared FeBO 3 with carbon and nitrogen. In addition, the two absorptions at 642 cm −1 and 546 cm −1 in the fingerprint region correspond to the stretching vibrations of Fe-O and Fe-O-B, respectively [19,[30][31][32][33][34]. Further, the broad band at 3200 cm −1 due to the O-H and COOH stretching vibration can be explained by the presence of adsorbed atmospheric water and the formation of formic acid in the presence of iron containing compound, respectively.…”

“…The FTIR spectrum of the as-prepared C,N-doped FeBO 3 is presented in Figure 3. Here, the characteristic absorption bands of the borate group are observed, including the B-O stretching vibration at 1384-1460 cm −1 and the B-O-B stretching vibration at 749-781 cm −1 .In addition, the two absorptions at 642 cm −1 and 546 cm −1 in the fingerprint region correspond to the stretching vibrations of Fe-O and Fe-O-B, respectively[19,[30][31][32][33][34]. Further, the broad band at 3200 cm −1 due to the O-H and COOH stretching vibration can be explained by the presence of adsorbed atmospheric water and the formation of formic acid in the presence of iron containing compound, respectively.…”

Preparation and characterization of poly(lactic acid)/boron oxide nanocomposites: Thermal, mechanical, crystallization, and flammability properties

“…Boron and oxygen elements were detected by EDS both in the B 2 O 3 and in the BONPs. It should be noted that boron containing materials are known to be challenging to characterize using SEM and EDS, owing to boron's low atomic number, difficulty for ionization, and low fluorescence yield upon excitation 33 . When boron element is analyzed along with elements with a higher atomic number than itself, these elements can cover the peak of the boron element while they are giving the higher spectrum peak 21 …”