Unlocking the Power of Highly Dispersed Fe in Zeolite: Operando XAS for Targeted NOx Reduction Catalysis

The development of atomically dispersed Fe atoms with zeolite catalysts for the selective catalytic reduction of NOx has a broad scientific and technological interest.Thus,we synthesized highly dispersed Fe-zeolite through a novel approach,which showed high catalytic activity and stability compared to a series of zeolite catalysts having Fe clusters. Our lab-based characterization and ex situ XAS analysis showed that isolated tetrahedral and octahedral Fe atoms exist in the zeolite framework (doi.org/10.1002/anie.202311048). However, fundamental insight into the nature/structure of the catalyst under reaction conditions is lacking. Therefore, using operando XAS for NH3-SCR of NOx leads to understanding the nature of catalytic sites probing the structural evolution of these sites under real conditions. Simulation of theoretical structures, followed by the linear combination fitting will provide an insight into the chemical/structural transformation of isolated sites during the reaction.