The Influence of Si/Al Ratios on Adsorption and Desorption Characterizations of Pd/Beta Served as Cold-Start Catalysts

The majority of NOx is exhausted during the cold-start period for the low temperature of vehicle emissions, which can be solved by using Pd/zeolite catalysts to trap NOx at low temperature and release NOx at a high temperature that must be higher than the operating temperature of selective catalytic reduction catalysts (SCR). In this work, several Pd/Beta catalysts were prepared to identify the influence of Si/Al ratios on NO and C3H6 adsorption and desorption characterizations. The physicochemical properties were identified using N2 physical adsorption, Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FT-IR), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), X-ray photo electron spectroscopy (XPS), and Na+ titration, while the adsorption and desorption characterizations were investigated by catalyst evaluation. The results indicated that the amount of dispersed Pd ions, the main active sites for NO and C3H6 adsorption, decreased with the increase of Si/Al ratios. Besides this, the intensity of Brønsted and Lewis acid decreased with the increase of Si/Al ratios, which also led to the decrease of NO and C3H6 adsorption amounts. Therefore, Pd dispersion and the acidic properties of Pd/Beta together determined the adsorption ability of NO and C3H6. Moreover, lower Si/Al ratios resulted in the formation of an additional dispersed Pd cationic species, Pd(OH)+, from which adsorbed NO released at a much lower temperature. Finally, an optimum Si/Al ratio of Pd/Beta was found at around 55 due to the balanced performance between the adsorption amounts and desorption temperature