Sol–gel synthesis of CuO-TiO 2 catalyst with high dispersion CuO species for selective catalytic oxidation of NO

Abstract In this study, CuO-TiO 2 (Cu x -Ti) mixed-oxide catalysts with different Cu content prepared by sol-gel method were firstly used to selective catalytic oxidation (SCO) of NO. The catalytic activity test revealed that catalysts, especially Cu 0.07 -Ti, exhibited much higher catalytic performance than CuO supported TiO 2 (Cu 0.07 /Ti) catalyst. XRD, EDS, Raman, XPS, H 2 -TPR, O 2 -TOD, NO-TPD and DRIFT measurements were used for characterizing the catalysts. The results of characterizations reveled that Cu 0.07 -Ti catalysts possessed high dispersed CuO. This feature of Cu 0.07 -Ti resulted in a strong interaction of Cu species with TiO 2 support in compared to Cu 0.07 /Ti. This strong interaction not only enhanced amounts of active oxygen species by promoting the formation of oxygen vacancies, but also activated adsorbed NO over Cu 0.07 -Ti catalysts. In addition, on the basis of NO 2 formation, it also promoted the decomposition of nitrate species to NO 2 over Cu 0.07 -Ti catalyst. Based on the above mentioned favorable properties, Cu 0.07 -Ti catalysts had an excellent NO-SCO performance.