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Selective catalytic oxidation of ammonia to nitrogen over orderly mesoporous CuFe2O4 with high specific surface area

  • Article
  • Environmental Chemistry
  • Published:
Chinese Science Bulletin

Abstract

Orderly mesoporous CuFe2O4 spinel-type mixed oxide with high specific surface area was prepared successfully by a hard-template method in which KIT-6 mesoporous silica was selected as the hard template. The KIT-6 hard template and CuFe2O4 samples were characterized by X-ray diffraction, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, X-ray fluorescence, transmission electron microscopy, scanning electron microscopy, nitrogen physisorption, and hydrogen-temperature programmed reduction. The KIT-6 hard template had perfect crystallization and ordered mesoporous structure with a probable pore distribution of about 9.1 nm, large enough to be filled by the spinel precursor. The mesoporous CuFe2O4 spinel oxide synthesized inside the KIT-6 mesopores had a relatively small pore size (4.3 nm), orderly arrangement, and high specific area (194 m2/g). The catalytic activity of the mesoporous CuFe2O4 was tested for the selective oxidation of ammonia to nitrogen. The conversion of ammonia reached nearly 100 % at 300 °C with a nitrogen selectivity as high as 96 %. The nitrogen selectivity remained high with increasing temperature and even maintained a value of 80 % at 600 °C.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the National High Technology Research and Development Program of China (2013AA065900) and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (21177008, 21121064).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Chemical Resource Engineering, Beijing University of Chemical Technology, Beijing, 100029, China

    Wenrui Yue, Runduo Zhang, Ning Liu & Biaohua Chen

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  1. Wenrui Yue
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  2. Runduo Zhang
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  3. Ning Liu
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  4. Biaohua Chen
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Runduo Zhang.

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SPECIAL TOPIC: Advanced Catalytic Materials for Environmental Application

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Yue, W., Zhang, R., Liu, N. et al. Selective catalytic oxidation of ammonia to nitrogen over orderly mesoporous CuFe2O4 with high specific surface area. Chin. Sci. Bull. 59, 3980–3986 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11434-014-0495-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11434-014-0495-z

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