Mechanistic assessments of NO oxidation turnover rates and active site densities on WO3-promoted CeO2 catalysts

Transformation of Arsenic from Poison into Active Site by Construction of Unique AsOx/CeO2 Interface for Stable NOx Removal

Arsenic in the flue gas has been widely reported as a common poison for SCR catalysts; however, an appropriate coping strategy is still lacking to improve the arsenic resistance performance. Herein, a unique AsOx/CeO2 interface is constructed to transform arsenic from poison into active site with balanced acid-redox property, successfully achieving efficient NOx removal. The optimized AsOx/CeO2 exhibits high NOx removal efficiency, four times that of the As-poisoned V2O5/TiO2 catalyst, and even comparable to the state-of-the-art SCR catalysts. It was found that the As-O-Ce interfacial sites in oxygen-bridged As dimers on CeO2 can provide both Lewis acid sites and active lattice oxygen species, enhancing the adsorption and activation of NH3 to form key -NH2 intermediates, thereby facilitating the NH3-SCR reaction. More surprisingly, a thin CeO2 layer on the top of V2O5/TiO2 can capture arsenic to protect catalysts from arsenic attacking, which improves the catalytic activity to 2.8 × 10-7 mol g-1 s-1, even higher than that of fresh V2O5/TiO2 (2.0 × 10-7 mol g-1 s-1). Therefore, this strategy provides new ideas not only for designing antipoisoning SCR catalysts but also a feasible solution for the stable operation of commercial SCR catalysts in arsenic-containing flue gas.

Mechanistic insights into NH3-assisted selective reduction of NO on CeO2: a first-principles microkinetic study on selectivity and activity

To understand the activity- and selectivity-limiting factors of selective catalytic reduction of NO with NH3 (NH3-SCR) catalyzed by CeO2-based oxides, a molecular-level mechanistic exploration was performed on CeO2(110) using a first-principles microkinetic study. Herein, the favored reaction pathway for N2 formation on CeO2(110) is unveiled, which includes three key subprocesses. (i) NH3 adsorbs on the Cecus site and dissociates into *NH2 assisted by Olat; (ii) *NH2 preferentially couples with NO adsorbed on Olat (ONO#), forming *NH2NO on the Cecus site; (iii) *NH2NO undergoes dehydrogenation into *NHNO, which can be easily anchored by Ovac and can then decompose into N2. The quantitative microkinetic results show that the transfer of NHNO from Cecus to Ovac, rather than the further conversion of N2O to N2 on Ovac, emerges as the N2 selectivity-determining step on CeO2, in which Ovac plays a key role. The number of Ovac is an important factor determining the N2 selectivity of CeO2-based catalysts. The sensitivity analysis reveals that NH2NO formation, i.e., *NH2 + ONO# → *NH2NO + O#, is the rate-determining step for NH3-SCR on the CeO2 catalyst; accordingly, enhancing NH3 adsorption could be an effective strategy to boost the catalytic activity of CeO2 for NH3-SCR. In general, creating Ovac on CeO2 and introducing components (e.g., WO3) with strong NH3 adsorption would be efficient for designing CeO2-based catalysts with superior N2 selectivity and activity. These results could provide a consolidated theoretical basis for understanding and optimizing CeO2-based catalysts for NH3-SCR.

Catalytic Oxidation of n-Decane, n-Hexane, and Propane over Pt/CeO2 Catalysts

Pt species with different chemical states and structures were supported on CeO₂ by solution reduction (Pt/CeO₂-SR) and wet impregnation (Pt/CeO₂-WI) and investigated in catalytic oxidation of n-decane (C₁₀H₂₂), n-hexane (C₆H₁₄), and propane (C₃H₈). Characterization by X-ray diffraction, Raman spectroscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, H₂-temperature programming reduction, and oxygen temperature-programmed desorption showed that Pt⁰ and Pt²⁺ existed on Pt nanoparticles of the Pt/CeO₂-SR sample, which promoted redox, oxygen adsorption, and activation. On Pt/CeO₂-WI, Pt species were highly dispersed on CeO₂ as the Pt-O-Ce structure, in which surface oxygen decreased significantly. The Pt/CeO₂-SR catalyst presents high activity in oxidation of C₁₀H₂₂ with a rate of 0.164 μmol min^-1 m^-2 at 150 °C. The rate increased with oxygen concentration. Moreover, Pt/CeO₂-SR presents high stability on feed stream containing 1000 ppm C₁₀H₂₂ at gas hour space velocity = 30,000 h^-1 as low as 150 °C for 1800 min. The low activity and stability of Pt/CeO₂-WI were probably related to its low availability of surface oxygen. In situ Fourier transform infrared results showed that the adsorption of alkane occurred through the interaction with Ce-OH. The adsorption of C₆H₁₄ and C₃H₈ was much weaker than that of C₁₀H₂₂, which resulted in the decrease in activity for C₆H₁₄ and C₃H₈ oxidation of Pt/CeO₂ catalysts.

Enhanced Performance of Supported Ternary Metal Catalysts for the Oxidation of Toluene in the Presence of Trichloroethylene

Chlorinated volatile organic compounds (CVOCs), even in small quantities, can cause Pt-based catalyst poisoning. Improving the low-temperature chlorine resistance of catalysts is of vital importance for industrial application, although it remains challenging. Considering actual industrial production, a TiO2-supported ternary metal catalyst was prepared in this work to study the catalytic oxidation of multicomponent VOCs (toluene and trichloroethylene (TCE)). Among all of the samples, PtWRu/TiO2 and PtWCr/TiO2 exhibited the best catalytic performance for toluene oxidation. In the mixed VOC oxidation, the PtWCr/TiO2 sample showed the best catalytic activity for toluene combustion (a toluene conversion of 90% was achieved at 258 °C and a space velocity of 40,000 mL g−1 h−1, and the specific reaction rate and turnover frequency at 215 °C were 44.9 × 10−6 mol gPt−1 s−1 and 26.2 × 10−5 s−1). The PtWRu/TiO2 sample showed the best catalytic activity for TCE combustion (a TCE conversion of 90% was achieved at 305 °C and a space velocity of 40,000 mL g−1 h−1, and the specific reaction rate and turnover frequency at 270 °C were 9.0 × 10−6 mol gPt−1 s−1 and 7.3 × 10–5 s−1). We concluded that the ternary metal catalysts could greatly improve chlorine desorption by increasing the active lattice oxygen mobility and surface acidity, thus reducing chlorinated byproducts and other serious environmental pollutants. This work may serve as a reasonable design reference for solving more practical industrial production emissions of multicomponent VOCs.

Silicotungstic acid modified CeO2 catalyst with high stability for the catalytic combustion of chlorobenzene

The catalysts' redox capacity and surface acidity was important during the catalytic combustion of chlorobenzene (CB). CeO₂ showed great attractiveness due to its high oxygen storage capacity. Furthermore, the increase of acidity on the catalyst surface could improve the resistance to the chlorine poisoning. In this work, the silicotungstic (HSiW) modified CeO₂ catalysts prepared by four cerium salts and exhibited the different morphologies and catalytic activity. The HSiW modified CeO₂ catalyst prepared by Ce(CH₃COO)₃ (Cat-A) exhibited the best catalytic activity due to its abundant surface weak acid sites, more Ce³⁺ species and surface adsorption oxygen. The HSiW mainly located on the CeO₂ (111) planes of the Cat-A, which was conducive to redox property of CeO₂, thus promoting the deep oxidation of CB. Meanwhile the redox ability together with the weak acidity influenced the catalytic efficiency at low temperature. And the redox ability played a major role at high temperature. In addition, the Cat-A still possessed high stability and water resistance and maintained high activity after continuous catalytic oxidation of CB at 235 and 295 °C for 100h, exhibiting the possibility of industrial application.

SO2-Tolerant Selective Catalytic Reduction of NO x over Meso-TiO2@Fe2O3@Al2O3 Metal-Based Monolith Catalysts

It is an intractable issue to improve the low-temperature SO₂-tolerant selective catalytic reduction (SCR) of NO _x with NH₃ because deposited sulfates are difficult to decompose below 300 °C. Herein, we established a low-temperature self-prevention mechanism of mesoporous-TiO₂@Fe₂O₃ core-shell composites against sulfate deposition using experiments and density functional theory. The mesoporous TiO₂-shell effectively restrained the deposition of FeSO₄ and NH₄HSO₄ because of weak SO₂ adsorption and promoted NH₄HSO₄ decomposition on the mesoporous-TiO₂. The electron transfer at the Fe₂O₃ (core)-TiO₂ (shell) interface accelerated the redox cycle, launching the "Fast SCR" reaction, which broadened the low-temperature window. Engineered from the nano- to macro-scale, we achieved one-pot self-installation of mesoporous-TiO₂@Fe₂O₃ composites on the self-tailored AlOOH@Al-mesh monoliths. After the thermal treatment, the mesoporous-TiO₂@Fe₂O₃@Al₂O₃ monolith catalyst delivered a broad window of 220-420 °C with NO conversion above 90% and had superior SO₂ tolerance at 260 °C. The effective heat removal of Al-mesh monolithcatalysts restrained NH₃ oxidation to NO and N₂O while suppressing the decomposition of NH₄NO₃ to N₂O, and this led to much better high-temperature activity and N₂ selectivity. This work supplies a new point for the development of low-temperature SO₂-tolerant monolithic SCR catalysts with high N₂ selectivity, which is of great significance for both academic interests and practical applications.

Porous hypercrosslinked polymer-TiO2-graphene composite photocatalysts for visible-light-driven CO2 conversion

Significant efforts have been devoted to develop efficient visible-light-driven photocatalysts for the conversion of CO2 to chemical fuels. The photocatalytic efficiency for this transformation largely depends on CO2 adsorption and diffusion. However, the CO2 adsorption on the surface of photocatalysts is generally low due to their low specific surface area and the lack of matched pores. Here we report a well-defined porous hypercrosslinked polymer-TiO2-graphene composite structure with relatively high surface area i.e., 988 m2 g-1 and CO2 uptake capacity i.e., 12.87 wt%. This composite shows high photocatalytic performance especially for CH4 production, i.e., 27.62 μmol g-1 h-1, under mild reaction conditions without the use of sacrificial reagents or precious metal co-catalysts. The enhanced CO2 reactivity can be ascribed to their improved CO2 adsorption and diffusion, visible-light absorption, and photo-generated charge separation efficiency. This strategy provides new insights into the combination of microporous organic polymers with photocatalysts for solar-to-fuel conversion.

Role of carboxylic acid groups in the reduction of nitric oxide by carbon at low temperature, as exemplified by graphene oxide

Graphene oxide (GO) was utilized to investigate the role of carboxylic acid groups in the reduction of nitric oxide (NO) for the first time. As a result, GO with sufficient carboxylic acid groups reduced 45% of NO at 100 °C. However, GO without these oxygen-containing groups barely reduced NO (lower than 5%) under the same conditions. After reduction of NO, the carboxylic acid group content on GO decreased from 8.32 to 5.22 mmol g^-1. Simultaneously, the anhydride group content increased from 0.14 to 0.28 mmol g^-1. FTIR spectroscopy also indicated that the carboxylic acid groups transformed into anhydride and lactone groups. Moreover, both transient kinetics and TG-MS studies demonstrated that reactive intermediates formed during the reaction between NO and GO at 100 °C. Based on these results, it was proposed that the carboxylic acid groups participated in NO reduction by consumption and regeneration. This mechanism explains why carbon is usually an effective reductant and catalyst support for NO removal at low temperature.

Quantum chemistry study on the oxidation of NO catalyzed by ZSM5 supported Mn/Co–Al/Ce

The detailed mechanism of NO oxidation catalyzed by ZSM5 supported Mn/Co–Al/Ce is investigated and revealed by Quantum Chemistry Calculation. A three-step catalytic mechanism for NO oxidation is proposed and studied. Theoretical results show that, the activate energies of reactions catalyzed by ZSM-5 supported Mn/Co (71.1[Formula: see text]kJ/mol/80.6[Formula: see text]kJ/mol) are much lower than that obtained from the direct NO oxidation. This indicates that the ZSM-5 supported Mn/Co has an obvious catalytic effect. When the active center Si is replaced by Al and Ce, the activation energies are further decreased to about 40[Formula: see text]kJ/mol. This indicates that the doping of Al and Ce can obviously improve the catalytic effect. The theoretical study illustrates that the catalysts for NO oxidation not only relate to the supported transition metal such as Co and Mn, but also highly relate to the activity centers such as Al and Ce.

Design strategies of surface basicity for NO oxidation over a novel Sn–Co–O catalyst in the presence of H2O

A novel mechanism is proposed for the modification of surface basicity to enhance H₂O resistance in NO oxidation over novel Sn–Co–O catalysts.