Molybdenum oxide as an efficient promoter to enhance the NH3-SCR performance of CeO2-SiO2 catalyst for NOx removal

Abstract Selective catalytic reduction (SCR) of NOx with NH3 has been widely used for the removal of NOx. Because of the inevitable disadvantages of conventional V2O5-WO3(MoO3)/TiO2 catalysts such as poor low-temperature SCR activity and toxicity of vanadium, as well as the high-cost and over-strong NH3 adsorption of zeolite catalysts, the development of efficient and non-toxic metal oxide SCR catalysts is highly demanded. Previously, we have developed an environmentally-benign CeO2-SiO2 mixed-oxide SCR catalyst (CeSi2), which exhibited superior SO2 resistance ability. However, the low-temperature SCR activity on CeSi2 was not that satisfactory. In this work, we proposed a new strategy of Mo doping to improve the low-temperature SCR activity on CeSi2, which was very crucial for its practical application. By a simple co-precipitation method, a homogenous Mo-Ce-Si mixed-oxide catalyst was prepared. The Mo doping could significantly enhance the NH3-SCR activity on CeSi2 below 250 °C, and the optimal catalyst was Mo0.1CeSi2, which could achieve 80% NOx conversion at 200 °C. Mo0.1CeSi2 also exhibited superior N2 selectivity and resistance to SO2/H2O poisoning. Via a series of characterizations, it was found that the redox properties and surface acidity on CeSi2 by Mo doping, which accounted for the enhanced low-temperature NH3-SCR activity on Mo0.1CeSi2. The reaction mechanism on Mo0.1CeSi2 was also fully revealed by in situ DRIFTS experiments. This work provided a new insight for the development of efficient low-temperature SCR catalysts with superior SO2 resistance ability.