A comparative study of hydrothermal aging effect on cerium and lanthanum doped Cu/SSZ-13 catalysts for NH3-SCR

Ce- or La-doped Cu/SSZ-13 catalysts were prepared by a hydrothermal method and Cu, Ce or La ions were incorporated through stepwise ion exchange. The catalyst activity was measured for the ammonia selective catalytic reduction reaction. The structure and composition of catalyst were characterized by using X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry solid-state NMR, NH3-TPD techniques, and the active components were examined by XPS and XANES. The results indicate that the Ce and La doping can both completely preserve the SCR activity of Cu/SSZ-13 above 300 °C, but there is also a decrease of activity below 200 °C. On the other hand, Ce doping is beneficial to the formation of framework aluminum, stabilizes molecular sieve framework and Cu active sites of Cu/SSZ-13, thereby improves the catalyst hydrothermal stability. But La doping will decrease the amount of framework aluminum and Cu active sites of Cu/SSZ-13 after hydrothermally aging, even destroy zeolite CHA structure. This is quite harmful to the catalyst hydrothermal stability.