Enhancing low-temperature NH3-SCR activity via dual-phase MnOx/Cu-SSZ-13 composite catalysts: The different roles of Mn2O3 and Mn3O4

The advancements in engine technology have led to a decrease in exhaust temperatures, hence enhancing the activity of Cu-SSZ-13 at low temperatures becomes crucial and challenging. This enhancement can be achieved using dual-phase metal oxide/Cu-SSZ-13 composite catalysts. In this work, we evaluated the comparative efficacy of Mn 3 O 4 and Mn 2 O 3 and discovered that Mn 3 O 4 exhibited a significantly superior enhancement in deNO x activity of Cu-SSZ-13 at low temperatures, achieving 95% NO x conversion at 200 °C. This is substantially higher than the conversions recorded by Mn 2 O 3 /Cu-SSZ-13 (78%) and Cu-SSZ-13 (40%). Kinetic and IR results demonstrate that Mn 3 O 4 /Cu-SSZ-13 and Mn 2 O 3 /Cu-SSZ-13 composite samples share a same low-temperature pathway, where bridged nitrates formed on the MnO x react with adsorbed on Brønsted acid sites in Cu-SSZ-13. In this reaction pathway, bridged nitrate formation is identified as the rate-determining step. The distinctive structure of Mn 3 O 4 triggers an increase in oxygen vacancies, creating a higher content of chemically adsorbed oxygen, compared to Mn 2 O 3 . Those adsorbed oxygen facilitates bridged nitrate formation. Consequently, due to the larger amount of bridged nitrate formed on Mn 3 O 4 compared to Mn 2 O 3 , the Mn 3 O 4 /Cu-SSZ-13 sample exhibits higher activity.