One-pot synthesis of FeCu-SSZ-13 zeolite with superior performance in selective catalytic reduction of NO by NH3 from natural aluminosilicates

Abstract

Heterobimetallic zeolites have been considered as highly efficient catalysts to reduce nitrogen oxide emissions, but economic and sustainable preparation methods have been lacking. This paper presents an economic and sustainable one-pot synthesis strategy to prepare the heterobimetallic FeCu-SSZ-13 zeolite (FeCu-SSZ-13M) with high crystallinity via the mesoscale depolymerization-reorganization of natural aluminosilicate minerals without the use of any synthetic silicon-, aluminum-, and iron-containing chemicals. Systematic characterization results reveal that the resultant FeCu-SSZ-13M sample has smaller crystallize size, larger specific surface area and pore volume (especially external specific surface area and mesopore volume), lower acid strength and more isolated Cu2+ and framework Fe3+ ions when compared with Cu-SSZ-13C and FeCu-SSZ-13C prepared from conventional precursors. Therefore, it exhibits outstanding catalytic performance (such as super-wide reaction temperature window, excellent hydrothermal stability, high H2O and SO2 tolerance, and good gaseous hourly space velocity flexibility) in the selective catalytic reduction of NO by NH3. Our research contributes to the design and synthesis of an efficient environmental protection catalyst in an economic and sustainable manner.