Synergistic effects of Cu species and acidity of Cu-ZSM-5 on catalytic performance for selective catalytic oxidation of n-butylamine

In this work, a series of Cu-ZSM-5 catalysts with different SiO2/Al2O3 ratios (25, 50, 100 and 200) were synthesized and investigated in n-butylamine catalytic degradation. The n-butylamine can be completely catalytic degradation at 350 degrees C over all Cu-ZSM-5 catalysts. Moreover, Cu-ZSM-5 (25) exhibited the highest selectivity to N2, exceeding 90% at 350 degrees C. These samples were investigated in detail by several characterizations to illuminate the dependence of the catalytic performance on redox properties, Cu species, and acidity. The characterization results proved that the redox properties and chemisorption oxygen primarily affect n-butylamine conversion. N-2 selectivity was impacted by the Bronsted acidity and the isolated Cu2+ species. Meanwhile, the surface acid sites over Cu-ZSM-5 catalysts could influence the formation of Cu species. Furthermore, in situ diffuse reflectance infrared Fourier transform spectra was adopted to explore the reaction mechanism. The Cu-ZSM-5 catalysts are the most prospective catalysts for nitrogen-containing volatile organic compounds removal, and the results in this study could provide new insights into catalysts design for VOC catalytic oxidation. (C) 2020 The Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences. Published by Elsevier B.V.