Structural control for inhibiting SO2 adsorption in porous MnCe nanowire aerogel catalysts for low-temperature NH3-SCR

The presence of SO2 in industrial flue gases will cause permanent deactivation of the catalyst active centre. Therefore, an effective method to improve the SO2 resistance of manganese-based catalysts at low temperatures is urgently needed. In this work, a hierarchical porous nanowire structure catalyst was designed by the in situ self-assembly method to inhibit SO2 adsorption. This hierarchical porous nanowire aerogel catalyst with great BET surface area and surface acidity exhibited NOx conversion above 90% at 100–400 °C. Notably, the NOx conversion of the MnCe-N catalyst was almost not inhibited by SO2 (250 ppm) compared to the 33% decrease of the MnCe-P catalyst. On the MnCe-P catalyst, SO2 has strong competitive adsorption with NH3 and NO, and the stronger adsorption capacity of SO2 inhibits the adsorption activation of the reaction gas and hinders the reaction proceeding through the L-H mechanism. Meanwhile, a large quantity of sulfate is formed on the catalyst surface, which prevents the active centre to participate in the redox reaction. The structure of nanowires enhances the number of acid sites, facilitates the adsorption and activation of NH3, and effectively inhibits the adsorption of SO2 on the MnCe-N catalyst. Fewer sulfate species are generated and difficult to deposit and aggregate on the catalyst surface, as a result, the active centre is less affected by sulfate species. The stable adsorption of NH3-related species ensures reliable reaction on MnCe-N through the E-R mechanism. This work emphasizes the importance of hierarchically porous structures in improving the NH3-SCR performance and SO2 resistance of monolithic catalysts, and provides new insights into the design of highly efficient and stable catalytic materials.