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Design of a Reactor Cell for Modulated Excitation Raman and Diffuse Reflectance Studies of Selective Catalytic Reduction Catalysts

  • Special Issue: In Recognition of Professor Wolfgang Grünert's Contributions to the Science and Fundamentals of Selective Catalytic Reduction of NOx
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Abstract

Despite the large pool of spectroscopic studies about selective catalytic reduction (SCR), transient response experiments have not yet been fully utilized to extract key mechanistic and kinetic insights. Here, we describe the construction and performance characteristics of a spectroscopic cell that can be used for such an experimental design. The rapid gas exchange in the reaction chamber of the cell makes it amenable to modulated excitation (ME) experimentation. We show case studies wherein this cell was used for Raman, visible, and infrared spectroscopy under ME conditions to investigate the SCR mechanism over three of the most industrially relevant SCR catalysts today—V2O5/TiO2, Cu-SSZ-13, and Fe-ZSM-5.

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Acknowledgments

The authors acknowledge the financial support from the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNF, Project #200021_172669/1). The authors are grateful to H. Altorfer for the cell drawings, M. Hottinger for the cell fabrication, and P. Hottiger for the electrical connections. This project was carried out in the framework of the Swiss Competence Center for Energy Research (SCCER) BIOSWEET program.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Paul Scherrer Institut, CH-5232, Villigen PSI, Switzerland

    Rob Jeremiah G. Nuguid, Davide Ferri & Oliver Kröcher

  2. Institute of Chemical Sciences and Engineering, École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), CH-1015, Lausanne, Switzerland

    Rob Jeremiah G. Nuguid & Oliver Kröcher

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  1. Rob Jeremiah G. Nuguid
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Correspondence to Davide Ferri.

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Nuguid, R.J.G., Ferri, D. & Kröcher, O. Design of a Reactor Cell for Modulated Excitation Raman and Diffuse Reflectance Studies of Selective Catalytic Reduction Catalysts. Emiss. Control Sci. Technol. 5, 307–316 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40825-019-00141-2

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