Template design and economical strategy for the synthesis of SSZ-13 (CHA-Type) zeolite as an excellent catalyst for the selective catalytic reduction of NOx by ammonia

SSZ-13 zeolite, a CHA-type aluminosilicate, has attracted wide attention recently because of its extraordinary physiochemical properties and excellent potential for applications in catalysis. In this work, SSZ-13 zeolite was synthesized using choline chloride as a CHA-topology construction template. This new template has a low cost and is environmentally friendly. Specifically it has the appropriate geometry and functional groups for easy self-assembly as dual molecules to form the CHA topology, which was verified by self-prepared organic templates with similar structure and functional groups as well as IR spectroscopy and DFT and potential energy distribution calculations. After ion exchange by Cu cations, the as-synthesized SSZ-13 exhibited an outstanding performance for the selective catalytic reduction of NO and showed ≈100 % NO conversions across a wide temperature window of 150–450 °C