Asymmetric oxygen vacancy promotes CO-SCR performance on defect-engineered Rh/CeCuOx catalyst

Selective catalytic reduction of NO_x with CO (CO-SCR) is a process that purifies both NO and CO pollutants through a catalytic reaction. Specifically, the cleavage of NO on the catalyst surface is crucial for promoting the reaction. During the reaction, the presence of oxygen vacancies can extract oxygen from NO, thereby facilitating the cleavage of NO on the catalyst surface. Thus, the formation of oxygen vacancies is key to accelerating the CO-SCR reaction, with different types of oxygen vacancies being more conducive to their generation. In this study, Rh/CeCuO_x catalysts were synthesized using the co-crystallization and impregnation methods, and asymmetric oxygen vacancies were induced through hydrogen thermal treatment. This structural modification was aimed at regulating the behavior of NO on the catalyst surface. The Rh/Ce_0.95Cu_0.05O_x-H₂ catalyst exhibited the best performance in CO-SCR, achieving above 90% NO conversion at 162 °C. Various characterization techniques showed that the H₂ treatment effectively reduced some of the CuO and Rh₂O₃, creating asymmetric oxygen vacancies that accelerated the cleavage of NO on the catalyst surface, rather than forming difficult-to-decompose nitrates. This study offers a novel approach to constructing oxygen vacancies in new CO-SCR catalysts.