Catalytic properties of CeO2/TiO2 synthesized by different methods towards the organic dye photodegradation and NH3 selected catalytic removal of NOx

Abstract In this work, three synthesis methods including photo-chemical, precipitation and hydrothermal were applied for synthesizing CeO 2 /TiO 2 catalysts, and the catalytic performance including photodegradation degrees for organic pollutant and ammonia selective catalytic reduction (NH 3 -SCR) for NO removal were investigated. It was found that the photo-chemical synthesized CeO 2 -TiO 2 -PC exhibited the best photodegradation ability for methylene blue (MB), which had the degradation ratio of 91.21% and was approximately 23.92% higher than that with the matrix of rutile TiO 2 . The formed Ce-Ti heterojunction enhanced the separation of e − / h + and further promoted the photocatalytic properties. Moreover, the CeO 2 -TiO 2 -PC, and the CeO 2 -TiO 2 -P which synthesized by the precipitation method showed better NH 3 -SCR properties than that of hydrothermal synthesized CeO 2 -TiO 2 -H below 300 °C, while the CeO 2 -TiO 2 -H owned an outstanding NH 3 -SCR performance above 300 °C. The difference on the NH 3 -SCR properties may be major attributed to the acid sites, pore structures and surface areas on the surface of different catalysts.