New insight into selective catalytic reduction of nitrogen oxides on zirconia decorated with vanadium oxide

Solvothermal synthesis of zirconia decorated with vanadium oxide is investigated with the aim of using it in the catalytic conversion of nitrogen oxides. The effect of the mass ratio of vanadium (1.9; 3.8 and 5.7 wt%) to pure zirconia on the physicochemical and catalytic properties of the fabricated materials is demonstrated. The physicochemical characterization of catalysts indicates a slight reduction in the size of particles as well as an improvement in the textural properties with increasing mass of vanadium. The X-Ray diffraction analysis proves that the introduction of vanadium precursor inhibits crystallization of monoclinic zirconia and leads to the formation of different vanadium oxide moieties. The reported data on the selective catalytic reduction prove that zirconia catalysts decorated with vanadium mass ratio of 3.8 wt% and 5.7 wt% achieved the highest conversion of nitrogen oxides, reaching 80 % in the temperature range 480–520 °C. The obtained results suggest that in the fabricated catalysts, $V_{2}O_{5}$ species are the main active sites for the SCR-NH$_{3}$ reaction process.