Heat Treatment of Copper-based Zeolite Catalysts Is a Hot Topic
Material drives reactions that destroy nitrogen oxides in vehicle emissions
(June 2014)

Congratulations to our team at PNNL's Institute for Integrated Catalysis on being highly cited authors in the Journal of Catalysis for their work on how very high temperatures change the reactivity of certain copper-containing zeolite catalysts. Enlarge Image.
The 6-page article discusses the results of hydrothermally treating three catalysts: Cu-ZSM-5, Cu-beta, and Cu-SSZ-13. The first two were significantly less active at low temperatures after the thermal treatment. The third catalyst was not affected. The scientists also determined aluminum placement, which is directly related to activity, in the three catalysts. More than 40 other articles have cited the research since its publication in 2012.
The research was sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy/Vehicle Technologies Program. The research described in this paper was performed at the Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory, a national scientific user facility sponsored by the DOE's Office of Biological and Environmental Research and located at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory.
Reference: Kwak JH, D Tran, SD Burton, J Szanyi, JH Lee, and CHF Peden. 2012. "Effects of Hydrothermal Aging on NH3-SCR Reaction over Cu/Zeolites." Journal of Catalysis 287:203-209. DOI: 10.1016/j.jcat.2011.12.025