Roles of Pt and BaO in the Sulfation of Pt/BaO/Al2O3 Lean NOx Trap Materials: Sulfur K-edge XANES and Pt LIII XAFS Studies
The roles of barium oxide and platinum during the sulfation of Pt-BaO/Al2O3 lean NOx trap catalysts were investigated by S K edge XANES (X-ray absorption near-edge spectroscopy) and Pt LIII XAFS (X-ray absorption fine structure). All of the samples studied (Al2O3, BaO/Al2O3, Pt/Al2O3 and Pt-BaO/Al2O3) were pre-sulfated prior to the X-ray absorption measurements. It was found that barium oxide itself has the ability to directly form barium sulfate even in the absence of Pt and gas phase oxygen. In the platinum-containing samples, the presence of Pt-O species plays an important role in the formation of sulfate species. Even if barium and aluminum sites are available for SO2 to form sulfate, for the case of the BaO(8)/Al2O3 sample, where the barium coverage is about 0.26 ML, S XANES spectroscopy results show that barium sulfates are preferentially produced over aluminum sulfates . When oxygen is absent from the gas phase, the sulfation route that involves Pt-O is eliminated after the initially present Pt-O species are completely consumed. In this case, formation of sulfates is suppressed unless barium oxide is also present. Pt LIII XAFS results show that the first coordination sphere around the Pt atoms in the Pt particles is dependent upon the redox nature of the gas mixture used during the sulfation process. Sulfation under reducing environments (e.g. SO2+H2) leads to formation of Pt-S bonds, while oxidizing conditions (e.g. SO2+O2) continue to show the presence of Pt-O bonds. In addition, the former condition was found to give rise to a higher degree of Pt sintering than the latter one. This result explains why samples sulfated under reducing conditions had lower NOx uptakes than those sulfated under oxidizing conditions. Therefore, our results provide needed information for the development of optimum practical operation conditions (e.g. sulfation or desulfation) for lean NOx trap catalysts that minimize deactivation by sulfur.
- Research Organization:
- Pacific Northwest National Lab. (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States). Environmental Molecular Sciences Lab. (EMSL)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE
- DOE Contract Number:
- AC05-76RL01830
- OSTI ID:
- 925473
- Report Number(s):
- PNNL-SA-57316; 19800; VT0401000; TRN: US200809%%499
- Journal Information:
- Journal of Physical Chemistry C, 112(8):2981-2987, Vol. 112, Issue 8
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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