Insights into samarium doping effects on catalytic activity and SO2 tolerance of MnFeO catalyst for low-temperature NH3-SCR reaction

The development of catalysts with high NH3-SCR activity in the presence of SO2 was urgent for non-electric industries to control NOx emission at low temperature. Herein, a series of Sm-doping MnFeOx catalysts were synthesized through a typical PEG-assisted co-precipitation method and applied for low-temperature NH3-SCR process. SmMnFe-0.1 catalyst significantly broadened the activation temperature window and yielded almost 100% NO conversion from 75 to 200 °C, simultaneously, the NO removal efficiency still maintained at about 90% in the presence of SO2 and H2O. The characterization results confirmed that Sm could optimize the dispersity of active components and enlarge the surface area of catalyst. Furthermore, strong interaction among active ions facilitated more oxygen vacancies and accelerated NO oxidizing to NO2, further cooperating with abundant adsorbed NH3, leading to cause “Fast SCR” reaction. Both catalysts were dominated by the E-R mechanism despite MnFeOx catalyst also obeyed the L-H pathway. Particularly, the intense redox circles between Sm and Mn inhibited the electron transferring from SO2 to Mn ions, and induced Fe species serving as sacrificial sites along with Sm to preferentially react with SO2, resulting in an excellent SO2 tolerance, and the possible mechanism model was proposed.