Chinese Journal of Catalysis ›› 2019, Vol. 40 ›› Issue (7): 1070-1077.DOI: 10.1016/S1872-2067(19)63328-0

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Mechanistic insight into N2O formation during NO reduction by NH3 over Pd/CeO2 catalyst in the absence of O2

Liping Sheng, Zhaoxia Ma, Shiyuan Chen, Jinze Lou, Chengye Li, Songda Li, Ze Zhang, Yong Wang, Hangsheng Yang   

  1. State Key Laboratory of Silicon Materials and Center of Electron Microscopy, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310027, Zhejiang, China
  • Received:2019-01-14 Revised:2019-02-19 Online:2019-07-18 Published:2019-05-24
  • Supported by:

    The authors acknowledge the support of the National Key Research and Development Program of China (2017YFB0310403), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (51872260, 51390474, 91645103), the Ministry of Science and Technology of China (2016YFE0105700), the Environmentally Sustainable Management of Medical Wastes in China (C/V/S/10/251), and the Zhejiang Provincial Natural Science Foundation of China (Z4080070, LD19B030001).

Abstract:

N2O is a major by-product emitted during low-temperature selective catalytic reduction of NO with NH3 (NH3-SCR), which causes a series of serious environmental problems. A full understanding of the N2O formation mechanism is essential to suppress the N2O emission during the low-temperature NH3-SCR, and requires an intensive study of this heterogeneous catalysis process. In this study, we investigated the reaction between NH3 and NO over a Pd/CeO2 catalyst in the absence of O2, using X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, NH3-temperature-programmed desorption, NO-temperature-programmed desorption, and in-situ Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy. Our results indicate that the N2O formation mechanism is reaction-temperature-dependent. At temperatures below 250℃, the dissociation of HON, which is produced from the reaction between surface H·adatoms and adsorbed NO, is the key process for N2O formation. At temperatures above 250℃, the reaction between NO and surface N·, which is produced by NO dissociation, is the only route for N2O formation, and the dissociation of NO is the rate-determining step. Under optimal reaction conditions, a high performance with nearly 100% NO conversion and 100% N2 selectivity could be achieved. These results provide important information to clarify the mechanism of N2O formation and possible suppression of N2O emission during low-temperature NH3-SCR.

Key words: N2O formation, NO reduction, Pd/CeO2 catalyst, in-situ IR spectroscopy, Mechanism