The enhanced performance of ceria with surface sulfation for selective catalytic reduction of NO by NH3

The selective catalytic reduction (SCR) of NO with NH3 over fresh and sulfated CeO2 catalysts had been investigated in this study. Experimental results showed that the sulfated CeO2 sample had significantly higher NO conversion than the fresh one and revealed an excellent selectivity to N2 within the temperature range of 200–570 °C. By characterizations via BET, XRD, XPS, EDS and TPD, it was concluded that the improvement in SCR activity by sulfation might be originated from the increase of active oxygen species and the enhancement of NH3 chemisorption after surface sulfation, both of which were conducive to NH3 activation.

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► Sulfation of ceria had greatly improved SCR activity.
► Sulfation had induced an increase in active oxygen species.
► Sulfation had led to the enhancement of NH3 chemisorptions.
► Sulfation may give a new thought for SCR catalyst preparation.