Carbon deposition enhanced selective catalytic reduction of nitric oxide by a new catalytic process as well as increasing reducibility of catalyst

Carbon deposition usually hinders catalytic activity in one catalysis. In this work, carbon-deposition influence was investigated on selective catalytic reduction (SCR) of nitric oxide (NO) by a theoretical-experimental method. Density-functional-theory calculations showed that carbon deposition increased adsorption energy of NO on oxide. For example, adsorption energy on Fe₂O₃ increased from 1.70 to 5.27 eV. Carbon deposition increased activity by following processes: NO adsorption, NO dissociation, oxygen transmittance, CO-group formation, and N₂/CO₂ evolutions. Among these stages, CO-group formation was a key step. Based on these computational predictions, an experimental SCR was carried out for the verification. As a result, a carbon-deposited catalyst had a better SCR activity (20% higher) than the corresponding oxide catalyst. Characterizations showed that carbon deposition increased the amounts of medium/strong acidic sites as well as the reducibility of the catalytic center. The main result of this article helps to understand the interface behavior of carbon on a catalyst during SCR. Above results are also in favor of designing a more effective SCR reactor to ensure a more stable running.