Revealing the two distinctive roles of HY zeolite in enhancing the activity and durability of manganese oxide-zeolite hybrid catalysts for low-temperature NH3-SCR

Recently, metal oxide-zeolite hybrid systems have shown promise in enhancing catalytic performance in low-temperature selective catalytic reduction (SCR), but not much is known as to mechanistic details. The purpose of this study is to examine fluctuations in low-temperature activity contingent upon the presence or absence of zeolite and to elucidate a dual functional mechanism of mixed zeolite in improving the catalytic performance of MnOx, which is closely related to inter-particle diffusion of nitrite and nitrate species from MnOx to zeolite. Firstly, strong Brønsted acid sites on zeolite demonstrate a significantly faster reduction of diffused nitrite species compared to Brønsted/Lewis acid sites on MnOx. More importantly, we discovered that zeolite prevents ammonium nitrate deposition by absorbing and decomposing diffused nitrate species from MnOx. Such distinct interaction between zeolite and both nitrite and nitrate species clarified here will be of great promise in designing future hybrid catalytic materials for low-temperature NH3-SCR reactions.