The promotional effect of SO42− on N2 selectivity for selective catalytic oxidation of ammonia over RuO2/ZrO2 catalyst

The promoting effects of SO42− on N2 selectivity for selective catalytic oxidation (SCO) of ammonia to nitrogen over RuO2/ZrO2 catalyst were systematically investigated. The catalysts were measured by different characterization methods (BET, XRD, TEM, NH3–TPD and in situ DRIFTS). The results showed that the introduction of SO42− into RuO2/ZrO2 presented obvious effects on the structure, surface acidity and N2 selectivity of RuO2/ZrO2. The introduction of SO42− obviously increased the amount of surface acid sites, which could promote the adsorption of ammonia species and prevent the excessive oxidation of ammonia to NOx, improving the N2 selectivity dramatically. The DRIFTS results confirmed that the SCO of ammonia over RuO2/ZrO2–SO42− followed the in situ selective catalytic reduction of NOx (i-SCR) mechanism, involving NH3 oxidation to NO species and –NH2 reacted with NO to form the main product N2. The presence of SO42− not only increased the surface acid sites of the catalyst, but also inhibited the production of nitrate species, which was beneficial to improve the N2 selectivity.