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Title: Mechanism by which Tungsten Oxide Promotes the Activity of Supported V2O5/TiO2 Catalysts for NOX Abatement: Structural Effects Revealed by 51V MAS NMR Spectroscopy

Journal Article · · Angewandte Chemie (International Edition)
ORCiD logo [1];  [2];  [3];  [3];  [4];  [4];  [3];  [3];  [3];  [3];  [2];  [1]; ORCiD logo [3]
  1. Pacific Northwest National Lab. (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States); Washington State Univ., Pullman, WA (United States)
  2. Lehigh Univ., Bethlehem, PA (United States)
  3. Pacific Northwest National Lab. (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States)
  4. The Univ. of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, AL (United States)

Growing concern for environmental pollutants coupled with an expansion of energy demand has promoted significant interest in technologies to abate contaminating species. Nitrogen oxides are particularly alarming due to their numerous detrimental impacts to the environment and public health, where selective catalytic reduction to inert N2 is an industrially-relevant mitigation technology. Herein, we provide unique, molecular-level insight on the structure and reactivity of V2O5(-WO3)/TiO2 catalysts employed at stationary facilities for NOx removal. Detailed catalytic testing, spectroscopy (nuclear magnetic resonance, Raman, and electron paramagnetic resonance), and electronic structure-based predictions of 51V chemical shifts help clarify the promotional role of tungsten oxide and identify an active site requirement for SCR of NOx. We show that progressive addition of vanadia to the catalyst surface increases the catalytic SCR performance and promotes the formation of larger vanadium domains, demonstrating the proportional relationship of SCR reaction rate to [VOx loading]2 for supported V2O5/TiO2 catalysts with increasing surface vanadia coverage. Tungsten oxide incorporation enhances catalyst reactivity which is shown to stem not from electronic effects, but from changes to the vanadium structure as observed spectroscopically. The progressive addition of tungsten oxide to the catalyst surface also increases the catalytic performance and promotes the formation of larger vanadium domains, which are beneficial for catalytic turnover in a two-site model. Further, unique monomeric species are confidently ascribed to distorted tetrahedral and square pyramidal structures, resolving a long-standing uncertainty in literature assignments for the signals. These findings provide strong support for both the dual-site requirement for the SCR reaction and the important structural promotional effect that tungsten offers for mitigation of these harmful pollutants.

Research Organization:
Energy Frontier Research Centers (EFRC) (United States). Center for Understanding and Control of Acid Gas-induced Evolution of Materials for Energy (UNCAGE-ME); Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES)
Grant/Contract Number:
AC05-76RL01830; SC0012577; 66628
OSTI ID:
1572978
Alternate ID(s):
OSTI ID: 1547078
Report Number(s):
PNNL-SA-141251; ANIE; TRN: US2001090
Journal Information:
Angewandte Chemie (International Edition), Vol. 58, Issue 36; ISSN 1433-7851
Publisher:
WileyCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 102 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

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Cited By (4)

Structural characterization of vanadium environments in MCM-41 molecular sieve catalysts by solid state 51 V NMR journal January 2019
Effect of treatment atmosphere on the vanadium species of V/TiO 2 catalysts for the selective catalytic reduction of NO x with NH 3 journal January 2020
Catalytic activation of ethylene C–H bonds on uniform d 8 Ir( i ) and Ni( ii ) cations in zeolites: toward molecular level understanding of ethylene polymerization on heterogeneous catalysts journal January 2019
Single-atom catalysts reveal the dinuclear characteristic of active sites in NO selective reduction with NH3 journal March 2020

Figures / Tables (5)