The Effect of Different Active Sites on the Catalytic Activity of Fe-ZSM-5 Zeolite for N2O Direct Decomposition

Fe-modified ZSM-5 zeolites (Si/Al = 25) were prepared by adopting the liquid ion-exchange method with nitrate and oxalate of iron as Fe precursors and their catalytic performance was studied in the N₂O decomposition reaction. The results of FT-IR and H₂-TPR investigations indicated that (i) part of the iron ions could replace Brönsted acid protons at the straight channel wall (α sites), intersection of straight and sinusoidal channels (β sites), and sinusoidal channel wall (γ sites) within the ZSM-5 zeolite; and (ii) different Fe precursors gave rise to various distributions of α, β, and γ sites. We observed that the Fe-ZSM-5 catalyst prepared with iron oxalate as Fe precursor outperformed the ones prepared with iron nitrate as Fe precursor in the direct decomposition of N₂O. Furthermore, the catalytic activity of iron ions located at the α sites was higher than those of iron ions located at the β and γ sites.