Promotional effect of Al2O3 on WO3/CeO2-ZrO2 monolithic catalyst for selective catalytic reduction of nitrogen oxides with ammonia after hydrothermal aging treatment

Hydrothermal stability of catalysts for selective catalytic reduction of NOx with NH3 (NH3-SCR) has always been recognized as a challenge in development of candidate catalysts for applications in diesel engine emissions. In this study, Al2O3 was introduced into CeO2-ZrO2 to improve the NH3-SCR activity of WO3/CeO2-ZrO2 after hydrothermal aging (HA) treatment at 800 degrees C for 12 h. The activity results indicated that the NH3-SCR activity of WO3/CeO2-ZrO2-HA was obviously improved in the whole reaction temperature range after doping Al2O3 into CeO2-ZrO2, for example, the average and maximum NOx conversion were separately increased by ca. 20% and 25% after HA treatment. XRD, Raman, TEM and EDX results revealed that the introduction of Al2O3 inhibited the sintering and agglomeration of CeO2-ZrO2 and WO3 and the formation of Ce-2(WO4)(3) after HA treatment. Accordingly, WO3/CeO2-ZrO2-Al2O3-HA showed remarkably improved structural stability and reducibility, increased surface acidity, and facilitated the reactivity between adsorbed NH3 and nitrate species, which together contributed to its better catalytic performance after hydrothermal aging treatment. (C) 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.