Titanium-silicon ferrierites and their delaminated forms modified with copper as effective catalysts for low-temperature NH3-SCR.

Titanium-silicon ferrierites with different Si/Ti ratios and their delaminated forms were modified with copper by ion-exchange. The obtained samples were characterized with respect to their chemical composition (ICP-OES), structure (XRD), texture (N2 sorption), morphology (SEM), form and aggregation of titanium and copper species (UV-vis-DRS), reducibility of deposited copper species (H2-TPR) and surface acidity (NH3-TPD). The porous structure of the zeolitic samples strongly influenced the form and aggregation of deposited copper species. In the case of the three dimensional microporous structure of ferrierites (Ti-FER), copper was deposited mainly in the form of aggregated copper oxide species, in contrast to the open micro- and mesoporous structure of delaminated ferrierites (Ti-ITQ-6), where mainly copper in the form of monomeric cations was identified. It was shown that monomeric copper cations are more catalytically active in NO to NO2 oxidation than aggregated copper oxide species and, therefore, for the low-temperature conversion of nitrogen oxides the fast SCR reaction pathway is more effective for delaminated ferrierites modified with copper (Cu-Ti-ITQ-6) than for microporous three dimensional ferrierite catalysts (Cu-Ti-FER).