A novel bifunctional Pt/Ce/WZrO catalyst for efficient selective oxidation of high-concentration NH3

A novel bifunctional catalyst with excellent NH3-SCO and NH3-SCR functions is effective to achieve excellent low-temperature activity and high N2 selectivity simultaneously, especially for removing high-concentration NH3 slipped from NH3-fuel engine exhaust gas. Herein, a small amount of noble metal Pt (0.1 wt%) was introduced in Ce/WZrOx to synthesize a novel bifunctional NH3-SCO catalyst. The experimental results showed that deposition order of Pt and Ce active species supported on WZrOx had a significant influence on NH3-SCO performance. Pt/Ce/WZrOx catalyst prepared through impregnation-precipitation method exhibited a much superior comprehensive NH3 removal performance compared to Pt/Al2O3 catalyst (Pt 0.1 wt%). It achieved an NH3 conversion of 96.4 % and a N2 selectivity of 94.2 % at 310 °C. A series of characterization tests were adopted to compare the physicochemical properties of Pt/Ce/WZrOx and Ce/WZrOx catalysts to reveal the possible functions of Pt and Ce active species in NH3-SCO reactions. The results of H2-TPR implied that there was a strong interaction between the Pt and Ce active species, which greatly enhanced the low-temperature redox property of Pt/Ce/WZrOx catalyst. Besides, electron transfer between Pt0/Ptn+ and Ce3+/Ce4+ cycles facilitated the generation of oxygen vacancies on the Pt/Ce/WZrOx catalyst surface, which played a key role in the reaction for removing high-concentration NH3. In-situ DRIFTS results suggested that NH3-SCO reactions over Pt/Ce/WZrOx catalyst might follow both imide (–NH) and hydrazine (-N2H4) mechanisms.