3.2. Application of MnOx/TiO2 Catalysts in the SCR-NH3 Reaction
Based on the ranking order of the InOrdinatio scores as reported in
Table 2, this section presents the application of MnO
x/TiO
2 catalysts in the selective catalytic reduction of NH
3 (SCR-NH
3) reaction in a comprehensive and comprehensible manner.
Thirupathi and Smirniotis [
25] used a wet impregnation co-doping method to incorporate transition metals such as chromium (Cr), iron (Fe), cobalt (Co), nickel (Ni), copper (Cu), zinc (Zn), zirconium (Zr), and cerium (Ce) into Mn/TiO
2-based catalysts. The results showed that the Mn/Ni-TiO
2 catalyst exhibited higher NO
x reduction efficiency in the SCR-NH
3 reaction, indicating that Ni is a promising metal additive. H
2-TPR and XPS analyses revealed that MnO
2 was the main phase in the Mn-Ni/TiO
2 catalyst with an atomic ratio of 0.4, and the increased reducibility of Mn led to higher NO
x reduction efficiency. The NO
x reduction efficiency of the Mn-Ni/TiO
2 catalyst with an atomic ratio of 0.4 could reach approximately 100% at around 200 ℃. Moreover, the addition of Ni significantly improved the thermal stability of the catalyst, which still achieved 76% NO
x reduction efficiency at 300 ℃.
Thirupathi and Smirniotis [
26] further employed the wet impregnation co-doping method to incorporate nickel (Ni) atoms into modified Mn/TiO
2 catalysts. They evaluated the catalytic performance of these catalysts in the SCR-NH
3 reaction under different Ni/Mn ratios (0.0, 0.2, 0.4, 0.6, and 0.8). The results showed that the addition of Ni to the Mn/TiO
2 catalyst significantly enhanced its NO
x reduction efficiency and selectivity towards N
2 production. The Mn/TiO
2 catalyst with a Ni/Mn atomic ratio of 0.4 exhibited 100% NO
x conversion and high selectivity towards N
2 generation at 200 ℃. Furthermore, the Mn/TiO
2 catalyst with a Ni/Mn atomic ratio of 0.4 demonstrated excellent stability, maintaining complete NO
x conversion over a reaction time of 240 hours.
Li et al. [
27] utilized the wet impregnation method to synthesize MnO
x/TiO
2 catalysts using different precursors. In the experiments, a gas mixture containing 500 ppm of NO, 500 ppm of NH
3, 3% of O
2, and balanced with N
2 was employed. The evaluation was carried out using 500 mg of catalyst at a gas flow rate of 300 ml per minute. The experimental results indicated that the use of manganese nitrates (MN) and manganese acetate (MA) as precursors led to different oxidation states of manganese in the MnO
x catalysts prepared for the SCR reaction. According to the results, the MA-MnO
x/TiO
2 catalyst exhibited approximately 70% NO reduction efficiency at a lower temperature (50 ℃), reaching 100% NO reduction efficiency at 150 ℃. In contrast, the NO reduction efficiency of MN-MnO
x/TiO
2 catalyst increased more slowly with temperature, reaching a maximum conversion rate of only 96% at 200 ℃. Manganese acetate, as a precursor for the catalyst, exhibited higher catalytic activity due to the formation of highly dispersed Mn
2O
3 surfaces, while manganese nitrates mainly resulted in less active MnO
2 surfaces.
Li et al. [
28] incorporated niobium (Nb) into Mn/TiO
2 catalysts to prepare modified Mn/TiO
2 catalysts and evaluated their resistance to zinc (Zn) in the SCR-NH
3 reaction. In this study, two different catalyst formulations were employed. Firstly, catalyst samples without zinc were synthesized, with one formulation being Mn/TiO
2 at a molar ratio of 0.2:1, and the other formulation being Mn-Nb/TiO
2 at a molar ratio of 0.15:0.05:1. Additionally, catalyst samples containing zinc were prepared, with Zn/Mn or Zn/(Mn+Nb) molar ratios of 1:8. The evaluation tests of these catalysts were conducted using a gas mixture containing 600 ppm of NO, 600 ppm of NH
3, 5% of O
2, and balanced with argon (Ar) as the carrier gas, at a GHSV of 108,000 h
-1. The results revealed that for the Mn/TiO
2 catalyst without zinc, the maximum NO reduction efficiency was 95% at 200 ℃, whereas in the presence of zinc poisoning, the NO reduction efficiency of the Mn/TiO
2 catalyst at 200 ℃ dropped to only 20%. On the other hand, the modified catalyst with Nb exhibited improved stability, maintaining a sustained NO reduction efficiency of 95% from 150 ℃ to 350 ℃. Even in the presence of zinc poisoning, the Nb-doped Mn/TiO
2 catalyst still achieved an NO reduction efficiency of 80%. The authors suggested that the addition of Nb could lower crystallinity, promote the formation of Mn
4+ and adsorbed oxygen, enhance catalytic efficiency, and improve resistance to zinc, thereby facilitating the reduction reaction between NO and NH
3.
According to the study conducted by Gao et al. [
29], rare earth metals such as samarium (Sm) can also enhance the catalytic efficiency when incorporated into catalysts in the SCR reaction. This is attributed to their partially filled 4f and 5d orbitals. Gao et al. employed a reverse co-precipitation method to introduce compounds with different Sm/Mn molar ratios (0.1, 0.3, and 0.5) into MnO
x/TiO
2 catalysts and evaluated their performance in the SCR-NH
3 reaction. The evaluation tests were carried out using a gas mixture containing 500 ppm of NO, 500 ppm of NH
3, 5% of O
2, and balanced with N
2 as the carrier gas. The catalyst loading was 600 mg, and the tests were conducted at a GHSV of 36,000 h
-1. The results demonstrated that the catalyst with a Sm/Mn molar ratio of 0.3 achieved a NO reduction efficiency of approximately 100% within the temperature range of 210 ℃ to 360 ℃. Furthermore, the catalyst with a Sm/Mn molar ratio of 0.3 exhibited a selectivity of 100% towards N
2 formation within the temperature range of 120 ℃ to 390 ℃.
Xie et al. [
22] conducted a study on the effects of incorporating various transition metals into MnO
x/TiO
2 catalysts. The molar ratio of the transition metal (M) to manganese (Mn) and titanium (Ti) in the catalysts was 0.05:0.3:1 (M = Ce, Fe, Co, and Ni), and the transition metals were introduced into MnO
x/TiO
2 through a wet impregnation method. The evaluation tests were carried out using a gas mixture containing 500 ppm of NO, 500 ppm of NH
3, 5% of O
2, and balanced with argon (Ar) as the carrier gas. The tests were conducted under two GHSV conditions, namely 120,000 ml·g
-1·h
-1 and 60,000 ml·g
-1·h
-1. The results demonstrated that the Ni-Mn/TiO
2 catalyst exhibited better performance than the other materials within the temperature range of 150 ℃ to 200 ℃, achieving over 90% NO conversion rates under both gas flow rates. Additionally, the authors emphasized the importance of GHSV, which can affect the catalytic activity. Increasing the GHSV from 60,000 ml·g
-1·h
-1 to 120,000 ml·g
-1·h
-1 had an adverse effect on the reduction efficiency under preset conditions, especially at 100 ℃. At the same reaction temperature, the reduction efficiency for NO was approximately 70% when the GHSV was 120,000 ml·g
-1·h
-1, but exceeded 80% when the GHSV was 60,000 ml·g
-1·h
-1, indicating that increasing the GHSV would lead to decreased catalytic activity for the Ni-Mn/TiO
2 catalyst.
The commonly used methods for preparing Mn/TiO
2 catalysts are sol-gel and impregnation methods. Kim et al. [
18] demonstrated in their study that the catalytic reduction activity of this type of catalyst towards NO
x may be directly influenced by the synthesis method of the catalyst. Kim et al. prepared Mn/TiO
2 catalysts with different Mn contents (mass ratios ranging from 12% to 30%) using both sol-gel and impregnation methods. The evaluation tests were conducted using a gas mixture containing 500 ppm of NO
x, 500 ppm of NH
3, 5% of O
2, 10% of H
2O, and balanced with N
2 as the carrier gas. The tests were performed at a GHSV of 100,000 h
-1 using 1g of the catalyst. The research results showed that the catalytic activity of the Mn/TiO
2 catalysts prepared by the impregnation method significantly decreased as the Mn content increased from 13% to 28% (mass ratio). In contrast, Mn/TiO
2 catalysts prepared by the sol-gel method exhibited strong catalytic ability at a Mn content of 30% (mass ratio), achieving 90% catalytic efficiency for NO
x reduction at 250 ℃. On the other hand, the Mn/TiO
2 catalyst prepared by the impregnation method (with the optimal Mn content of 13%) only reached a conversion rate of 65% under the same conditions. Catalysts synthesized by the sol-gel method demonstrated superior performance because they could disperse MnO
2 more effectively, thereby enhancing the catalytic efficiency of the catalyst.
Ye et al. [
30] prepared Mn-Ce/TiO
2 catalysts with dispersed metal oxide nanoparticles on graphene oxide (GO), reduced graphene oxide (rGO), and partially reduced graphene oxide (prGO) using a wet impregnation method. The performance of the catalyst in the selective catalytic reduction of NH
3 with SCR-NH
3 reaction was investigated in the temperature range of 100 ℃ to 300 ℃. The experiments were conducted using a gas mixture containing 500 ppm of NO
x, 5% of O
2, 500 ppm of NH
3, and N
2 as the balance gas, with a GHSV of 100,000 ml·g
-1·h
-1.The results showed that the Mn-Ce/TiO
2 catalyst supported on partially reduced graphene oxide exhibited the highest NO
x reduction efficiency, reaching up to 99% in the temperature range of 150 ℃ to 250 ℃. This high catalytic activity may be attributed to the excellent thermal conductivity of graphene oxide and its physical properties such as high dispersion, large surface area, and high thermal stability.
According to the study by Hao et al. [
31], using TiO
2 as a catalyst support offers numerous advantages. TiO
2 possesses high thermal stability and is resistant to SO
2 poisoning. Additionally, TiO
2 provides adsorption sites for NH
3, including Lewis acid and Bronsted acid sites, which are beneficial for the SCR-NH
3 reaction to occur.
Li et al. [
32] investigated the catalytic performance of Mn-Ce/TiO
2 catalysts supported on {0 0 1}-faceted titanium nanosheets, prepared via a wet impregnation method, in the SCR-NH
3 reaction. The experiments were conducted using a gas flow containing 0.08% NO, 0.08% NH
3, 5% O
2, and N
2 as the balance gas, with a GHSV of 10,000 h
-1. The results showed that the Mn-Ce/TiO
2 catalyst supported on {0 0 1}-faceted titanium nanosheets exhibited a catalytic NO
x reduction efficiency of 90% at 160 ℃, while the Mn-Ce/TiO
2 catalyst supported on {1 0 1}-faceted anatase showed a much lower NO
x reduction efficiency of only 61.4% at the same temperature. The authors attributed the higher catalytic activity of the Mn-Ce/TiO
2 catalyst supported on {0 0 1}-faceted titanium nanosheets to the increased surface area and promotion of the SCR-NH
3 reaction facilitated by the {0 0 1}-faceted nanosheets.
Niu et al. [
33] prepared modified MnO
x/TiO
2 catalysts by incorporating thulium (Tm) using a wet impregnation method and studied their catalytic performance. The experiments were conducted using a gas flow containing 500 ppm of NO, 500 ppm of NH
3, 5% O
2, and N
2 as the balance gas, with 180 mg of catalyst used for evaluation.The results showed that the catalysts modified with Tm exhibited a 100% NO reduction efficiency between 150 ℃ and 270 ℃ at a GHSV of 36,000 h
-1. In contrast, the unmodified catalysts achieved an approximate 90% NO reduction efficiency at around 240 ℃ under the same conditions but with a higher GHSV of 180,000 h
-1. However, the introduction of Tm into the catalysts at the same conditions improved the NO reduction efficiency to 95%.
Huang et al. [
12] demonstrated that doping transition metals such as Cr, Mn, Fe, and Cu, as well as rare earth metals, can enhance the catalytic activity of Mn/TiO
2 catalysts. The authors synthesized a series of doped rare earth metal catalysts, Mn-RE/TiO
2, using a wet impregnation method. The RE metals used were Ce, Sm, Neodymium(Nd), Erbium(Er), and Gadolinium(Y), with a mass ratio of 3% for RE/TiO
2 and 30% for Mn/TiO
2.The experiments were conducted using a gas flow containing 600 ppm of NO, 600 ppm of NH
3, 3% O
2, and N
2 as the balance gas. The results showed that among these catalysts, Nd had the most significant impact on the reduction efficiency of NO
x in the SCR-NH
3 reaction. At 100 ℃, the catalyst doped with Nd achieved a maximum catalytic reduction efficiency of 100%. The authors attributed the higher catalytic activity of the Nd-doped material to its larger specific surface area, smaller average pore size, and the improved dispersibility of MnO
x facilitated by Nd.
Sun et al. [
34] investigated the application of MnMo/TiO
2, Mo/TiO
2, and Mn/TiO
2 catalysts synthesized via co-precipitation method in the SCR-NH
3 reaction. The experimental conditions consisted of NO (600 ppm), NH
3 (600 ppm), O
2 (5%), H
2O (5%), SO
2 (100 ppm), with Ar as the balance gas and a GHSV of 108,000 h
-1.The research findings indicated that the Mo/TiO
2 catalyst exhibited a reduction catalytic efficiency for NO below 35% within the temperature range of 50 ℃ to 400 ℃. On the other hand, the Mn/TiO
2 catalyst achieved a reduction catalytic efficiency for NO of up to 90% in the temperature range of 219 ℃ to 319 ℃. In comparison, the MnMo/TiO
2 composite catalyst with a Mn/Mo molar ratio of 0.04 demonstrated over 95% reduction catalytic efficiency within the temperature range of 200 ℃ to 300 ℃. The NOx reduction catalytic efficiency of MnMo/TiO
2 catalyst was approximately twice that of the pure Mn/TiO
2 catalyst.
Jiang et al. [
35] synthesized a series of Mn/TiO
2 catalysts using ultrasonic spray pyrolysis method, with Mn/Ti molar ratios ranging from 0.1 to 0.6. Within the temperature range of 120 ℃ to 240 ℃, these Mn/TiO
2 catalysts exhibited high catalytic reduction efficiency for NO. Among them, the Mn(0.5)/TiO
2 catalyst achieved a catalytic reduction efficiency for NO of approximately 97% at a GHSV of 30,000 h
-1.
Jia et al. [
36] synthesized MnO
x/TiO
2, MnO
x/ZrO
2, and MnO
x/ZrO
2-TiO
2 catalysts and studied their application in SCR-NH
3. The experimental setup involved a gas stream containing 500 ppm of NO, 500 ppm of NH
3, 10% of H
2O, 4% of O
2, and N
2 as the balance gas. A catalyst loading of 550 mg was used for the evaluation experiments.The results showed that among this series of catalysts, the MnO
x/TiO
2 catalyst achieved a 100% reduction catalytic efficiency for NO
x between 240 ℃ and 360 ℃. Additionally, the MnO
x/ZrO
2-TiO
2 catalyst exhibited better resistance to H
2O and SO
2 under the same activity conditions.
Wei et al. [
37] synthesized Mn/TiO
2 catalysts using a co-precipitation method with an atomic ratio of Mn/Ti of 0.4, and investigated the influence of potassium (K) poisoning on the catalyst performance. The experimental gas composition consisted of a 1:1 mixture of NO and NH
3 (1000 ppm), along with 3% O
2, and N
2 was used as the balance gas. The experiments were conducted at a GHSV of 40000 h
-1.The pristine Mn/TiO
2 catalyst exhibited a NO reduction catalytic efficiency exceeding 85% between 150 ℃ and 270 ℃. However, the catalytic activity of the material affected by K poisoning significantly decreased within the same temperature range, remaining below 75%. The authors suggested that the catalyst experienced deactivation after being exposed to K poisoning, primarily due to the deposition of potassium leading to a reduction in surface area and pore volume of the catalyst.
Fang et al. [
38] evaluated the catalytic efficiency of Mn/TiO
2 catalysts containing Ni and Cu. The molar ratio of Mn/Ti was 0.4, and the molar ratios of Mn/Cu and Mn/Ni were both 2. The experimental conditions included 720 ppm NO, 800 ppm NH
3, and 3% O
2, with N
2 as the balance gas at a total flow rate of 1120 ml·min
-1.The results showed that at 179 ℃, the Ni-Mn/TiO
2 catalyst exhibited a NO
x reduction catalytic efficiency exceeding 87%. However, the Cu-Mn/TiO
2 catalyst demonstrated an even higher reduction catalytic efficiency at the same temperature, reaching 93%.
Huang et al. [
39] synthesized a core-shell catalyst called MnFeO
X@TiO
2 using the impregnation method. The aim was to enhance the catalyst’s resistance to potassium (K) poisoning in the selective catalytic reduction of NH
3 (SCR-NH
3) reaction. A comparison experiment was conducted with supported MnFeO
x/TiO
2 catalysts. The experimental conditions included a gas flow with 600 ppm NO, 600 ppm NH
3, 5% O
2, and Ar as the balance gas, under a gas hourly space velocity of 108,000 h
-1. The study results demonstrated that compared to the supported MnFeO
x/TiO
2 catalysts, the core-shell MnFeO
x@TiO
2 catalysts exhibited good NO
x reduction catalytic efficiency within the temperature range of 250 ℃ to 400 ℃, even with a cumulative K poison amount of approximately 60%.
Shi et al. [
40] conducted a study on the co-doping of tungsten (W) and iron (Fe) in MnO
x/TiO
2 catalysts. These catalysts were prepared by a wet impregnation method and evaluated under the following conditions: 600 ppm NO, 600 ppm NH
3, 15% O
2, with N
2 as the balance gas, and a gas hourly space velocity of 240,000 h
-1.The results showed that compared to MnO
x/TiO
2 catalysts, the FeMnO
x/TiO
2 catalysts exhibited a 27% improvement in the reduction catalytic efficiency for NO
x. The lower temperature window for catalytic activity was shifted from 200 ℃ to 150 ℃. However, the reduction catalytic efficiency for NO
x decreased at 400 ℃. On the other hand, the catalyst doped with tungsten (WMnO
x/TiO
2) showed a 40% increase in reduction efficiency for NO
x compared to MnO
x/TiO
2 catalysts at 400 ℃.