Achieving Atomic Dispersion of Highly Loaded Transition Metals in Small-Pore Zeolite SSZ-13: High-Capacity and High-Efficiency Low-Temperature CO and Passive NO_x Adsorbers

The majority of harmful atmospheric CO and NO_x emissions are from vehicle exhausts. Although there has been success addressing NO_x emissions at temperatures above 250 °C with selective catalytic reduction technology, emissions during vehicle cold start (when the temperature is below 150 °C), are a major challenge. Herein, we show we can completely eliminate both CO and NO_x emissions simultaneously under realistic exhaust flow, using a highly loaded (2 wt %) atomically dispersed palladium in the extra-framework positions of the small-pore chabazite material as a CO and passive NO_x adsorber. Until now, atomically dispersed highly loaded (>0.3 wt %) transition-metal/SSZ-13 materials have not been known. We devised a general, simple, and scalable route to prepare such materials for Pt^II and Pd^II . Through spectroscopy and materials testing we show that both CO and NO_x can be simultaneously completely abated with 100 % efficiency by the formation of mixed carbonyl-nitrosyl palladium complex in chabazite micropore.