Perovskites nitrogen oxide decomposition

Complex oxides of the perovskite structure containing rare earths like lanthanum have proved effective for oxidation of CO and hydrocarbons and for the decomposition of nitrogen oxides. These catalysts are cheaper alternatives than noble metals like platinum and rhodium which are used in automotive catalytic converters. The most effective catalysts are systems of the type Lai vSrvM03, where M = cobalt, manganese, iron, chromium, copper. Further, perovskites used as active phases in catalytic converters have to be stabilized on the rare earth containing washcoat layers. This then leads to an increase in rare earth content of a catalytic converter unit by factors up to ten compared to the three way catalyst. 

Some dense inorganic membranes made of metals and metal oxides are oxygen specific. Notable ones include silver, zirconia stabilized by yttria or calcia, lead oxide, perovskite-type oxides and some mixed oxides such as yttria stabilized titania-zirconia. Their usage as a membrane reactor is profiled in Table 8.4 for a number of reactions decomposition of carbon dioxide to form carbon monoxide and oxygen, oxidation of ammonia to nitrogen and nitrous oxide, oxidation of methane to syngas and oxidative coupling of methane to form C2 hydrocarbons, and oxidation of other hydrocarbons such as ethylene, methanol, ethanol, propylene and butene. 

Nitrogen oxides (NO ) emitted from vehicles and industrial activities are one of severe pollutants to the environment. Direct decomposition of NO and reduction of NO with H2, CO, NH3, and hydrocarbons are the good ways to eliminate such a kind of pollutant. Several reviews relevant to this topic can be seen in the literature [244-246], However, a smnmarization on catalytic performance of the specifically morphological perovskites for NO removal is still unavailable. 

A large amount of N2O was formed from the initial stage over LaM03 (M = Co, Mn, Fe, Cr, Ni) at 573 K. The time course of the NO+CO reaction (performed in a batch recirculation system) reflects this situation. These results support a two-step reaction pathway in which N2O is an intermediate for nitrogen formation, deal et al. (1994) confirm the role of N2O as intermediate in this reaction over perovskite oxides. They used steady-state isotopic transient kinetic analysis to study the mechanism of NO + CO reaction over LaCo03. They concluded that N2O was an intermediate in the formation of N2 at T < 873 K. They also concluded that at high temperature CO2 desorption became the rate-limiting step of the overall reaction. This is likely due to the rapid formation and slow decomposition of very stable carbonates on the perovskite surface as reported by Milt et al. (1996). 

Jiang, H., Wang, H Liang, F Werth, S., Schiestel, T and Caro, J. (2009) Direct decomposition of nitrous oxide to nitrogen by in situ oxygen removal with a perovskite membrane. Angew, Chem, Int Ed., 48, 2983-2986. 

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