Investigation of NO and NO2 adsorption mechanisms on TiO2 at room temperature

Abstract

In this study, NO and NO2 adsorption mechanisms on TiO2 at room temperature have been investigated separately. Atmospheric pressure gas phase Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR) coupled to adsorption and temperature programmed desorption (TPD) experiments have been used to characterize gas phase and adsorbed phase species. TiO2 coated glass beads packed-bed reactor has been designed and used for NO and NO2 adsorption and storage capacity under dark and gas-flowing conditions at room temperature. For NO adsorption, experimental data suggests that, at room temperature, NO shows no significant adsorption on TiO2. On the other hand NO2 adsorbs in a reactive way by evolving NO in the gas phase. We quantitatively evidenced that, the ratio between consumed NO2, desorbed NO2 by TPD after adsorption and produced NO during NO2 adsorption is 3:2:1, by a qualitative and quantitative analysis performed downstream the reactor. Based on the quantitative analysis, a new NO2 adsorption mechanism on TiO2 at room temperature has been proposed, and validated for various NO2 inlet concentrations. The proposed mechanism is valid on the investigated NO2 inlet concentration range. In addition, it was found that, NO formation time, during NO2 adsorption, is rather controlled by TiO2 surface coverage than NO2 inlet concentration; similarly, adsorption time i.e. surface coverage, significantly modifies the nature of adsorbed species on TiO2 surface.