Titania Supported Bimetallic Transition Metal Oxides for Low-Temperature SCR of NO with NH₃

High surface area titania supported Mn−Cu and Mn−Cr bimetallic oxides were prepared by wet impregnation method using their nitrate salts. The catalytic activity of these materials was evaluated for selective catalytic reduction (SCR) of NO with NH 3 in the presence of excess oxygen at low temperatures (373−523 K). The surface and bulk properties of the catalysts were examined using X-ray diffraction, BET-surface area, FT-IR, temperature-programmed reduction (TPR), and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy ( XPS) techniques. X-ray diffraction (XRD) studies revealed the formation of definite crystalline compounds MnCrO 3 and CrMn 1.5 O 4 for Mn−Cr/TiO 2 samples and Cu 1.4 Mn 1.6 O 4 and Cu 1.5 Mn 1.5 O 4 for Mn−Cu/TiO 2 samples. The specific surface areas of the prepared catalysts were significantly lower than the pure TiO 2 support. The FT-IR studies indicate that the acidic strength of these catalysts was higher than the corresponding single oxide catalysts. TPR studies suggest that the shift in the reduction peak position toward higher temperatures in bimetallic oxides is probably due to the formation of binary or ternary metal oxide phases, as observed from XRD study. The XPS peak intensities and the corresponding binding energies indicate that the surface concentration of Mn is lower than either Cu or Cr at equal metal loadings. A slight shift of the Mn 2p XPS line toward higher binding energies (642.1 eV) was observed in the case of Mn−Cu/TiO 2 and Mn−Cr/TiO 2 catalysts. This is due to the formation of stoichiometric mixed oxide phases between promoted metal oxides, which was observed in the XRD study. The core level binding energy values indicate that the manganese is present as Mn(IV) in both the catalysts. The activity results of these catalysts were compared with their corresponding single oxide catalysts.