XAFS study on active Pr sites in zeolite as a photocatalyst for decomposition of nitrous oxide

K Ebitani; A Nishi; Y Hirano; H Yoshida; T Tanaka; T Mizugaki; K Kaneda; A Morikawa

doi:10.1107/s0909049500016988

XAFS study on active Pr sites in zeolite as a photocatalyst for decomposition of nitrous oxide

J Synchrotron Radiat. 2001 Mar 1;8(Pt 2):481-3. doi: 10.1107/s0909049500016988.

Authors

K Ebitani¹, A Nishi, Y Hirano, H Yoshida, T Tanaka, T Mizugaki, K Kaneda, A Morikawa

Affiliation

¹ Graduate School of Engineering Science, Osaka University, Japan.

PMID: 11512822
DOI: 10.1107/s0909049500016988

Abstract

The praseodymium-exchanged mordenite degassed at 873 K acted as a highly active heterogeneous photocatalyst for the stoichiometric decomposition of N2O. Analysis of Pr L3-edge EXAFS revealed that the Pr species were isolated each other in the large channel of zeolite, and that the active Pr species were coordinated by ca. four oxygen atoms and one Al atom. On the other hands, the inactive Pr species are surrounded by ca. 10 oxygens of adsorbed waters. The former low-coordinated Pr species allowed a strong adsorption of N2O, which could be the first step of the decomposition reaction.