Steven G. Fiddy, Mark A. Newton, Judith M. Corker, Sandra Turin, Tom Campbell, John Evans, Andrew J. Dent and Guiseppe Salvini
We demonstrate second and sub-second time resolved energy dispersive EXAFS (EDE) for in situ interrogation of phase changes in a supported metal catalyst precursor [(⩽5 wt%) Pt(acac)2/HI SiO2] during thermal decomposition and reduction; the formation of Pt particles is radically altered by the presence H2, in both kinetic and structural senses.