One-pot hydrothermal synthesis of CuBi co-doped mesoporous zeolite Beta for the removal of NOx by selective catalytic reduction with ammonia

A series of CuBi co-doped mesoporous zeolite Beta (CuxBiy-mBeta) were prepared by a facile one-pot hydrothermal treatment approach and were characterized by XRD, N2 adsorption-desorption, TEM/SEM, XPS, H2-TPR, NH3-TPD and in situ DRIFTS. The catalysts CuxBiy-mBeta were applied to the removal of NOx by selective catalytic reduction with ammonia (NH3-SCR), especially the optimized Cu1Bi1-mBeta achieved the high efficiency for the removal of NOx and N2 selectivity, superior water and sulfur resistance as well as good durability. The excellent catalytic performance could be attributed to the acid sites of the support and the synergistic effect between copper and bismuth species. Moreover, in situ DRIFTS results showed that amides NH2 and NH4(+) generated from NH3 adsorption could be responsible for the high selective catalytic reduction of NOx to N2. In addition, a possible catalytic reaction mechanism on Cu1Bi1-mBeta for the removal of NOx by NH3-SCR was proposed for explaining this catalytic process.