On the Nature of the Active Site in a CoAPO‐18 Solid Acid Catalyst

Combined in situ fluorescence X-ray absorption and X-ray diffraction have enabled the characterization of active centers of a Co-doped aluminum phosphate catalyst under near-operational conditions. Normally the characterization is carried out under rather artificial conditions, with the catalyst in either an expired (postmortem) or precursor (prenatal) state. Thus, structure A was determined for the local Co environment of the active catalyst.