The paper concerns the evolution of surface species of a V-O-Mo/anatase catalyst in the course of its thermal treatment in oxidising and/or reducing conditions. The catalyst was obtained by the sol-gel method. The structure of its surface was investigated by XPS and Raman spectroscopy. The fresh catalyst consists of anatase nanocrystallites with some vanadium and molybdenum ions substituted for titanium ones and molybdenum oxide islands on their surfaces. A V/Mo 5 O 14 solid solution-containing V atoms in its channels, as well as MoO 3 and anatase with some surface vanadia species are present on the catalyst surface. The reduction of anatase to TiO 2_x and of MoO 3 to Mo 5 O 14 , accompanied by inward vanadium diffusion occurs during the catalyst interaction with ammonia at 523 K. The oxidation of the TiO 2_x but not Mo 5 O 14 and V reappearance in the surface channels take place during the interaction of the reduced catalyst with molecular oxygen. However, the oxidation of Mo 5 O 14 to MoO 3 occurs under the influence of atomic oxygen, formed by NO decomposition at 423 K. It is accompanied by the surface vanadia species formation. The activity of V ions of these species in NO decomposition is lower than of the surface interstitial ones.
IntroductionAnatase-supported vanadia-based catalysts are the best catalysts for the selective catalytic reduction of NO x (x = 1 or 2) by ammonia (NH 3 -SCR) to N 2 and H 2 O in oxygen presence [1][2][3][4][5][6]. Anatase is known as a structural support for V2O5 catalysts due to the good crystallographic phase matching [7]. Anatasesupported vanadia-tungsta catalysts are commonly used to remove NO from stationary sources of emission. Molybdena-vanadia catalysts, though less active than vanadia-tungsta ones, are frequently used to reduce NO in off-gases containing arsenic [8]. Their resistance to poisoning by arsenic is much higher than the resistance of V-O-W catalysts. Vanadia surface species are commonly considered as responsible for the NH 3 -SCR activity of all the vanadia-based catalysts [1][2][3][4][5][6]. Structures of the vanadia surface species of European industrial catalysts -V 2 O 5 /TiO 2 for selective toluene oxidation to maleic anhydride and V 2 O 5 -WO 3 /TiO 2 one for NH 3 -SCR of NO x -were widely discussed in special issues of Catalysis Today [9,10]. It has recently been found that surface species of V-O-W/rutile catalyst with a vanadia structure show relatively high activity in direct NO decomposition to dinitrogen and dioxygen in oxygen presence at 423-453 K [11-13]. Such species are formed as a result of an vanadium segregation on the surfaces of the nanocrystallites of rutile and tungsten oxides during the thermal treatment of the catalyst in oxygen [14]. We expected that analogous species could be formed on anatase-supported V-O-Mo catalyst surface and could be active in NO decomposition in oxygen presence.