The research team from Progre Catalysis and Zhejiang Normal University directed by Professor Lou Meng Fei made some progress in research of boosting diethylamine selective oxidation, which was addressed in the paper titled Boosting diethylamine selective oxidation over CuO/ZSM-5 catalyst by CeO₂ modification( Fuel on on 22 February 2023,see more at Research Progress).

Selective catalytic oxidation of nitrogen containing volatile organic compounds (NVOCs) is very meaningful but still remains big challenge because it is very difficult to balance the oxidation activity and N₂ selectivity of available catalysts. In order to develop excellent catalysts with high N₂ selectivity in wide temperature window (△T) during NVOCs oxidation, CeO₂ modified CuO/ZSM-5 catalysts with different CeO₂ addition order were prepared for diethylamine (DEA) oxidation. Detailed characterizations of catalysts such as XRD, XPS, H₂-TPR and NH₃-TPD were conducted, it is found that addition of CeO₂ obviously changes the geometrical and electronic states of CuO active sites in the catalyst, and CeO₂ addition order affects the Ce³⁺ ratio on the catalyst surface. Promotion of CeO₂ species enables the generation of more highly active Cu species (Cu⁺ species and finely dispersed CuO clusters) for DEA oxidation; and synergistic catalysis of the Ce³⁺ species, active Cu species and acid sites in ZSM-5 leads to the high N₂ selectivity in wide temperature window (△T). Compared to the CeO₂/ CuO/ZSM-5 and CuO-CeO₂/ZSM-5 catalysts, the CuO/CeO₂/ZSM-5 catalyst exhibits moderate high oxidation activity with T₉₉ of 230℃ and the widest △T of 150℃ for high N₂ selectivity.The primary results in the team’s work provide the efficient strategy for improving catalyst employed for NVOCs selective oxidation.