Structural description of the nickel part of a raney-type catalyst by using anomalous small-angle X-ray scattering

The evaluation of the "pure resonant term" of the anomalous small-angle X-ray scattering (ASAXS) and the exclusive characterization of the spatial distribution of the Ni particles in a Raney-type catalyst are presented. The ASAXS method not only gives a qualitative characterization of catalytic nanoparticles without any separation technique but it also provides a quantitative determination of these active particles. By using the experimentally determined pure resonant term and the linear X-ray absorption of the sample, we got 38.5 ± 0.5 mol % nanostructured form of nickel and 40.3 mol % total nickel content, demonstrating a unique further advantage of ASAXS method.