Catalytic Reduction of SO2 on CeO2-La2O3 Rare Earth Mixed Compounds

Adding rare earth oxide CeO2 with variable valences to La2O3 formed a mixture of rare earth oxides. By means of dipping CeO2, La2O3 and their mixture, whose carriers were all γ-Al2O3, were used as the catalyst for the reduction of SO2 by CO. The activation process of this catalyst and the impact of temperature and reactant concentration on the activation process were investigated. Using X-ray diffraction, the structure characteristics of catalyst before and after reaction were analyzed to reveal the change of phase structure. The result shows that the rare earth oxide mixtures composing of CeO2 and La2O3, as the catalyst for the reduction of SO2 by CO, diminish activation temperature 50～100 ℃ less and have higher activity than a single oxide CeO2 or La2O3. The reason possibl is that La2O3 goes into in the lattice of CeO2 to form solid phase complex CeO2-La2O3 and increases the capability of CeO2-La2O3/γ-Al2O3 catalyst to store oxygen, which supplies the redox of CeO2 reaction with a better condition. At the same time, elemental sulfur formed in the redox reaction impels La2O3 to be transformed to activation phase La2O2S in a lower temperature, which can be explained with the synergism between redox reaction and COS intermediate mechanism reaction.