Achieving Atomic Dispersion of Highly Loaded Transition Metals in Small-Pore Zeolite SSZ-13: High-Capacity and High-Efficiency Low-Temperature CO and Passive NOx Adsorbers

The majority of harmful atmospheric CO and NOx emissions are from vehicle exhausts. Although there has been success addressing NOx emissions at temperatures above 250 degrees C with selective catalytic reduction technology, emissions during vehicle cold start (when the temperature is below 150 degrees C), are a major challenge. Herein, we show we can completely eliminate both CO and NOx emissions simultaneously under realistic exhaust flow, using a highly loaded (2wt%) atomically dispersed palladium in the extra-framework positions of the small-pore chabazite material as a CO and passive NOx adsorber. Until now, atomically dispersed highly loaded (>0.3wt%) transition-metal/SSZ-13 materials have not been known. We devised a general, simple, and scalable route to prepare such materials for Pt-II and Pd-II. Through spectroscopy and materials testing we show that both CO and NOx can be simultaneously completely abated with 100% efficiency by the formation of mixed carbonyl-nitrosyl palladium complex in chabazite micropore.