Oxygen-vacancy mediated acidity and redox properties on WOx/Cu-doped CeO2 for the removal of NOx

Acidity and redox properties of the catalyst are two crucial factors affecting the performance of NH 3 -SCR. Herein, we design a novel WO x /Cu-CeO 2 oxide catalyst in which the WO x species are highly dispersed on the {111}/{100}-terminated surface of Cu-doped CeO 2 nanospheres , which exhibits great deNO x activity advantage and wide operating temperature window (200–400 °C, over 85% NO x conversion with a gas hourly space velocity (GHSV) of 60,000 h −1 ), as well as good sulfur resistance and N 2 selectivity . The relationship among the composition, acidity and redox properties of the WO x /Cu-CeO 2 catalyst is established in the NH 3 -SCR reaction. The combined experimental studies and spectroscopic characterization reveal that the introduction of Cu into the lattice of CeO 2 not only increases the surface Ce 3+ and oxygen vacancy concentration but also provides more sites for capture and dispersion of WO x species, thus mediating and improving the Lewis and Brønsted acid sites and reducibility of catalyst. XPS and DFT calculations further demonstrate that electronic interaction between WO x and Cu-doped CeO 2 is enhanced duo to the existence of interactions of short-range Ce-O-Cu and Ce-O-W. Moreover, the NH 3 -SCR reaction over WO x /Cu-CeO 2 may follow both Langmuir-Hinshelwood and Eley-Rideal reaction pathway according to the in situ DRIFTS.