Nanocomposite LaFe1-xNixO3 /Palygorskite catalyst for photo-assisted reduction of NOx: Effect of Ni doping.

Nitrogen oxide (NO x ) is one of the world’s major air pollutants. Thus, utilizing inexpensive mineral materials to develop an efficient and low-temperature denitrification catalyst is of great significance. In the present work, palygorskite (Pal)-supported perovskite-type LaFe 1-x Ni x O 3 (x = 0.1–0.9) nanocomposites are prepared by a facile sol-gel method. Extensive tests are employed to characterize the textural and structural properties of samples. It is determined that perovskite particles are well dispersed on the surface of Pal with excellent NH 3 adsorption. The impacts of various Ni doping on the NO x conversion under visible light irradiation are investigated. Results indicate that when x is less than 0.4, LaFe 1-x Ni x O 3 remains a perovskite solid solution supported uniformly on the Pal surface. When x is beyond 0.4, LaNiO 3 phase co-precipitates and forms a coherent heterojunction of LaNiO 3 /LaFe 0.6 Ni 0.4 O 3 on Pal. Photo-assisted selected catalytic reduction (Photo-SCR) of NO results show that the denitrification performance varies with the Ni content, and more than 90% of NO molecules can be reduced when x = 0.5 in low temperature range of 150–250 °C. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]