Heterogeneous catalyst materials are the core of crude oil purification process performance. Catalyst deactivation, which is a result of crude impurity deposits into catalyst pores during this process, is therefore a major concern during refining. However, deactivation mechanisms are not easily investigated, as they involve carbon transport phenomena over a large range of concentrations, typically from hundreds of ppm to tens of mass%. Spatially resolved analysis of carbon conducted at the entire grain scale (∼mm²) with a micrometric resolution is therefore of primary importance to better predict, control, and further improve the purification processes. However, usual spatially resolved approaches are not easily suitable for mm²-scale analysis and/or not adequate in terms of carbon detection limits. In this work, we propose a quantitative methodology dedicated to carbon spatially resolved analysis and the evaluation of its analytical performance. This approach, based on laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS), allows for the first time 2D imaging of carbon at different process times as well as quantitative profiling of carbon diffusion over more than two orders of magnitude in concentration.

中文翻译：

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非均相精炼催化剂中碳的定量成像

非均相催化剂材料是原油提纯工艺性能的核心。因此，在此过程中，由于粗制杂质沉积到催化剂孔中而导致的催化剂失活是精炼过程中的主要问题。然而，失活机理不容易研究，因为它们涉及大范围浓度（通常为数百ppm至数十质量％）的碳传输现象。因此，以微米级分辨率在整个晶粒度（〜mm ²）上进行碳的空间分辨分析，对于更好地预测，控制和进一步改善提纯工艺至关重要。但是，通常的空间分辨方法不容易适用于mm ²规模分析和/或就碳检测限而言不够。在这项工作中，我们提出了一种定量方法，致力于碳空间分辨分析及其分析性能的评估。这种基于激光诱导击穿光谱法（LIBS）的方法，允许首次在不同的处理时间对碳进行2D成像，并可以对浓度超过两个数量级的碳扩散进行定量分析。