Exploring hydrothermally grown potassium titanate fibers by STEM-in-SEM/EDX and XRD

Microsc Microanal. 2006 Aug;12(4):322-6. doi: 10.1017/S1431927606060429.

Abstract

During lab-scale experiments on the reforming of methanol by means of water at supercritical conditions (T > 374 degrees C, p > 22.1 MPa), a tubular reactor with a titanium liner was exposed to an aqueous solvent containing methanol (5 wt%) and KHCO3 (0.3 wt%). At the end of the run, a fibrous precipitate was found at two positions in the reactor. The material was studied in a field emission scanning electron microscope equipped with an energy dispersive X-ray analysis unit (FESEM/EDX). A thin-film support technique using carbon-filmed TEM grids was applied to perform scanning transmission-type imaging (STEM-in-SEM operation) and transmission current measurements. The analysis of the hydrothermally grown fibers resulted in a potassium titanate species composed of approximately K2TiO3, which has been confirmed by X-ray diffraction (XRD).