Interactional effect of cerium and manganese on NO catalytic oxidation

Constructing a Pt/YMn2O5 Interface to Form Multiple Active Centers to Improve the Hydrothermal Stability of NO Oxidation

The hydrothermal stability of NO oxidation is the key to the practical application of diesel oxidation catalysts in diesel engines, which in the laboratory requires that NO activity does not decrease after aging for 10 h with 10% H₂O/air at 800 °C. On the one hand, the construction of a metal/oxide interface can lead to abundant oxygen vacancies (O_v), which compensate for the loss of activity caused by the aggregation of Pt particles after aging. On the other hand, YMn₂O₅ (YMO) has excellent thermal stability and NO oxidation capacity. Therefore, a Pt/YMn₂O₅-La-Al₂O₃ (Pt/YMO-LA) catalyst was prepared by the impregnation method. The support of the catalyst, YMn₂O₅-La-Al₂O₃ (YMO-LA), was obtained by mixing high specific surface LA and YMO ball-milling. Under laboratory-simulated diesel exhaust flow, the NO oxidation performance of Pt/YMO-LA did not decrease after hydrothermal aging. Combining high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), and oxygen temperature-programmed desorption (O₂-TPD), the Pt/YMn₂O₅ interface was formed after hydrothermal aging, and the increased O_v can provide reactive oxygen to Pt and YMO. The cooperative catalysis of multiple active centers composed of Pt, YMO, and O_v is the crucial factor to maintain the NO oxidation performance. In addition, in situ diffuse reflectance infrared Fourier transform spectra (DRIFTs) show that an increase in O_v is beneficial to the adsorption and desorption of more nitrate and nitrite intermediates, thus achieving the hydrothermal stability of NO oxidation.

Promotional effect of ZrO2 and WO3 on bimetallic Pt-Pd diesel oxidation catalyst

Diesel oxidation catalysts Pt-Pd-(y)ZrO₂-(z)WO₃/CeZrO_x-Al₂O₃ with total Pt & Pd loading of only 0.68 wt.% were prepared and investigated for oxidation activity and stability of CO, C₃H₆, and NO. Introduction of ZrO₂ greatly improved low-temperature activities and retained stability especially for CO and C₃H₆ oxidation after treated at 800 °C. With the optimal loading amount of 6 wt% ZrO₂, 2 wt% WO₃ was introduced to the system and showed higher activity. Reaction temperature for 50% CO and C₃H₆ conversion declined to 160 and 181 °C, and the maximal NO conversion increased to 50%. By using XRD, TEM, CO chemisorption, XPS, and H₂-TPR analysis, it was found that ZrO₂ could inhibit aggregation of Pt and Pd, improve metal dispersion, and increase surface-chemisorbed oxygen after high-temperature treatment, accounting for promoted performance. Also, there were more reducible oxide species in ZrO₂-doped catalysts. ZrO₂ could induce reduction of noble metal oxides and surface ceria by weakening Pt-O-Ce interaction, which increased the ability to dissociate H₂ and spillover effect of dissociated hydrogen to ceria. Doping WO₃ increased metal dispersion of fresh samples and brought more Pt⁰ species that were active sites for oxidation reactions. Thus, ZrO₂ and WO₃ could be effective additives for oxidation catalysts to synergistically improve their activities and thermal stability.

The positive effect of siderite-derived α-Fe2O3 during coaling on the NO behavior in the presence of NH3

Siderite is a naturally occurring mineral that can be found extensively in coal. The structural evolution of siderite in the process of coaling and its performance in the transformation of NO in the presence of NH₃ were investigated in this work. In addition, the effects of the coexisting component, including vapor, SO₂, and the alkali metal K, were also discussed. Heat treatment was performed at 450, 500, 550, 600, and 700 °C to obtain siderite-derived α-Fe₂O₃, which was then evaluated in de-NO_x via the selective catalytic reduction (SCR) of NO with NH₃ in a fixed bed. The X-ray diffraction (XRD), the X-ray fluorescence spectrometer (XRF), N₂ adsorption-desorption (BET), the X-ray photoelectron spectrometer (XPS), the scanning electron microscope (SEM), and the transmission electron microscope (TEM) were used to investigate the variations in the morphology and structure of the thermally treated siderite. The results showed that siderite was gradually oxidized and decomposed into α-Fe₂O₃ with a nanoporous structure and large surface area of 27.27 m² g^-1 after calcination under an air atmosphere. The α-Fe₂O₃ derived from siderite at 500 °C (H500) exhibited an excellent SCR performance, where the NO conversion rate was great than 90% between 250 and 300 °C due to the pore structure and high specific surface area, additional adsorbed oxygen states, abundant oligomeric Fe oxide clusters, and large amount of acid sites. Regardless of the vapor content, SO₂ concentration, and reaction temperature, the α-Fe₂O₃ derived from siderite at 500 °C (H500) still favored the conversion of NO. When the reaction temperature was lower than 350 °C, H500 favored the conversion of NO even in the presence of an alkali metal (K). The experimental data demonstrated the positive effect of siderite-derived α-Fe₂O₃ in SCR technology and provided insight into NO behavior in coaling flue gas after NH₃ injection.

NOx adsorption and desorption of a Mn-incorporated NSR catalyst Pt/Ba/Ce/xMn/γ-Al2O3

This study evaluated the NO_x adsorption and desorption performance as well as the casual relationship underlying a Mn-incorporated catalyst (Pt/Ba/Ce/xMn/γ-Al₂O₃). NO_x adsorption and desorption are regarded as a prominent index for the NO_x removal performance of NO_x storage and reduction; we utilized NO_x storage experiments with various inlet NO and O₂ concentrations and cycling adsorption/desorption experiments with a couple of adsorption time protocols for performance evaluation. In-suit DRIFT and NO_x-TPD tests were implemented to reveal the instant stored species and their thermal stability. Eight percent of Mn catalyst at 350 °C was adopted in the described experiments for its desirable NO_x adsorption characteristics. The optimal NO_x storage performance was found under 10% O₂, deteriorating when the concentration was further increased. Furthermore, elevating NO concentration impaired the NO_x adsorption due to the low NO₂/NO_x ratio. It was also found that shorter adsorption time facilitated NO_x removal via maintaining an unsaturated state for active storage components in terms of a fixed desorption time. The stored species existed as nitrites and nitrates with a good low-temperature thermal stability which however decayed at higher temperatures as exhibited in the DRIFT and NO_x-TPD tests. These findings provided invaluable information for the application of Mn-incorporated catalyst for NO_x removal in diesel exhaust purification to relieve the aerial pollution.

Arabinogalactan Proteins Are the Possible Extracellular Molecules for Binding Exogenous Cerium(III) in the Acidic Environment Outside Plant Cells

Rare earth elements [REE(III)] increasingly accumulate in the atmosphere and can be absorbed by plant leaves. Our previous study showed that after treatment of REE(III) on plant, REE(III) is first bound by some extracellular molecules of plant cells, and then the endocytosis of leaf cells will be initiated, which terminates the endocytic inertia of leaf cells. Identifying the extracellular molecules for binding REE(III) is the crucial first step to elucidate the mechanism of REE(III) initiating the endocytosis in leaf cells. Unfortunately, the molecules are unknown. Here, cerium(III) [Ce(III)] and Arabidopsis served as a representative of REE(III) and plants, respectively. By using interdisciplinary methods such as confocal laser scanning microscopy, immune-Au and fluorescent labeling, transmission electron microscope (TEM), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), ultraviolet-visible spectroscopy, circular dichroism spectroscopy, fluorescent spectrometry and molecular dynamics simulation, we obtained two important discoveries: first, the arabinogalactan proteins (AGP) inside leaf cells were sensitively increased in protein expression and recruited onto the plasma membrane; second, to verify whether AGP can bind to Ce(III) in the acidic environment outside leaf cells, by choosing fasciclin-like AGP11 (AtFLA11) as a representative of AGP, we found that Ce(III) can form stable [Ce(H2O)7](III)-AtFLA11 complexes with an apparent binding constant of 1.44 × 10-6 in simulated acidic environment outside leaf cells, in which the secondary and tertiary structure of AtFLA11 was changed. The structural change in AtFLA11 and the interaction between AtFLA11 and Ce(III) were enhanced with increasing the concentration of Ce(III). Therefore, AtFLA11 can serve as Lewis bases to coordinately bind to Ce(III), which broke traditional chemical principle. The results confirmed that AGP can be the possible extracellular molecules for binding to exogenous Ce(III) outside leaf cells, and provided references for elucidating the mechanism of REE(III) initiating the endocytosis in leaf cells.

A review of Mn-containing oxide catalysts for low temperature selective catalytic reduction of NOx with NH3: reaction mechanism and catalyst deactivation

The reactions over Mn-containing selective catalytic reduction (SCR) catalysts.