Solvation and Mobilization of Copper Active Sites in Zeolites by Ammonia: Consequences for the Catalytic Reduction of Nitrogen Oxides

-solvated Cu ions, which regulate the pore volume accessible to these ions and their ability to pair and complete the catalytic cycle. This highlights the key characteristics of the CHA framework that enable superior performance under low-temperature SCR reaction conditions.This work illustrates the power of precise control over a catalytic material, simultaneous kinetic and spectroscopic interrogation over a wide range of reaction conditions, and computational strategies tailored to capture those reaction conditions to reveal in microscopic detail the mechanistic features of a complex and widely practiced catalysis. In doing so, it highlights the key role of ion mobility in catalysis and thus potentially a more general phenomenon of reactant solvation and active site mobilization in reactions catalyzed by exchanged metal ions in zeolites.