Gas-phase Raman spectroscopy for two-dimensional temperature and concentration profiling in the catalytic oxidative dehydrogenation of ethanol

A novel optically accessible catalysis flow channel is introduced that enables quantitative, contiguous, two-dimensional in situ measurements of gas-phase temperature and species concentrations during heterogeneous catalytic reactions. Spatially resolved gas-phase Raman spectroscopy, integral Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy, and catalyst-resolved infrared thermography establish a well-defined platform for studying coupled reaction–transport phenomena. Applied to the oxidative dehydrogenation of ethanol over iron–molybdenum oxide catalysts, spontaneous Raman measurements yielded two-dimensional profiles of nine gas-phase species – with limits of detection in the tens-to-hundreds-of-ppm range – and gas-phase temperature within 500 µm of the catalyst surface. Transport analysis in the boundary layer yielded a Lewis number of approximately 1.65, indicating dominant thermal diffusion near the surface, while axial Péclet numbers revealed diffusion-controlled heat transport but advection-dominated product transport in a laminar regime. Varying the bulk flow velocity did not significantly alter conversion or product distributions, indicating kinetic and diffusive control under the present conditions. An iron-rich catalyst formulation exhibited higher activity than stoichiometric Fe2(MoO4)3 , whereas temperatures above 511 K reduced selectivity due to increased formation of total-oxidation products. Catalyst-free experiments, supported by kinetic simulations, confirmed partial gas-phase oxidation of acetaldehyde to CO, CO2, acetic acid, methanol, formaldehyde, and peracetic acid. These results highlight the importance of local gas-phase contributions and demonstrate that spatially resolving the gas-phase thermochemistry enables the gas phase to act as a reporter of surface reactions and facilitates the decoupling of chemical processes from transport phenomena.