The nanometric La2-xKxCuO4 oxide catalysts with K2NiF4-type structure were prepared by auto-combustion method using citric acid as a ligand and an adjusting agent of particle-size and morphology. The structures and physico-chemical properties of these perovskite-like oxides were examined by means of XRD, FT-IR, H2-TPR and chemical analysis. The catalytic activities for the simultaneous removal of soot and NOx were evaluated by a technique of the temperature-programmed oxidation reaction (TPO). In the La2-xKxCuO4 catalysts, the partial substitution of K for La at A-site leads to the increase of the concentrations of Cu3+ and oxygen vacancy. Thus, it enhances the catalytic activity for simultaneous removal of NOx and diesel soot, and the optimal substitution amount of potassium x is equal to 0.5 among these samples. T10, T50, T90 are 376, 438,487 ℃ and PN2 is 22%, respectively, for simultaneous removal of NOx and soot particulates over the La1.5K0.5CuO4 catalyst under loose contact conditions between the catalyst and soot.

The redox and acid–base characters of silica-supported vanadium or alkali-modified vanadium catalysts by varying vanadium loading were studied with the methods of H2-TPR, NH3-TPD and CO2-TPD combining other structural characterization techniques of ESR, UV–vis spectroscopy. The effects of these properties on their catalytic performances for the ethane oxidation by oxygen were investigated. For both the unpromoted V/SiO2 (V:Si = x:Si) and promoted Cs–V/SiO2 (Cs:V:Si = 1:x:100) systems, the reduction extent and the reducibility increase with increasing vanadia loading and the presence of cesium enhances the reduction extent. The structures of the vanadyl species have large effect on the vanadia reducibility and the isolated surface vanadyl species are less reducible than the polymeric vanadyl species including microcrystalline vanadia. For the samples with high vanadia loading (≥2.0%), the reducibility is high and thus the redox characteristic of the catalyst is one of the most important factors that govern the catalytic reactivity. In the samples with low vanadia loading (<0.5%), the reducibility is low. Therefore, the basicity or acidity characteristics of the catalyst become the major factors that control the catalytic reactivity. The cesium promoted samples Cs–V/SiO2 (2.0 and 10.0%) exhibit high reducibilities, which qualitatively suggests that their oxygen mobility is very high and may result in deep oxidation of ethane. In contrast, those samples with low reducibility are selective for the oxidation of ethane including ODH to ethylene and oxygenate formation.

A new method for the synthesis of Ni–Mo bimetallic nitrides was reported in the present paper. The bimetallic nitrides were successfully prepared by a temperature-programmed reaction between bimetallic oxide precursors and the mixed gases of N2 and H2 instead of NH3. By adjusting pH values of the solution in the process of co-precipitation, pure NiMoO4 or NiMoO4 with excess MoO3 was obtained, and then pure Ni3Mo3N or Ni3Mo3N with γ-Mo2N was synthesized by nitriding the precursors. The structural properties of the precursors and their corresponding nitrides were investigated by means of X-ray diffraction (XRD), ultraviolet laser Raman spectroscopy, thermogravimetric (TG) analysis and chemical analysis of total nitrogen content.

The oxidation of ethane by oxygen was studied over silica catalysts supporting different amounts of vanadium with and without cesium. Three different catalytic properties of the product selectivity were observed, aldehyde formation, oxidative dehydrogenation (ODH), and combustion, depending upon the vanadium loading amount and the presence or the absence of cesium. A very low loading of vanadium (V:Si=0.02–0.1 at.%) and the addition of Cs (Cs:Si=1 at.%) on silica were found to be important for the formation of aldehyde. Not only acetaldehyde but also acrolein were observed in the aldehyde formation from ethane. On the other hand, catalysts with medium and high vanadium loadings (V:Si=0.5–20 at.%) gave a dehydrogenated product, ethene, when Cs was not added to the catalysts. The addition of cesium to the catalysts with medium and high vanadium loadings changed the catalytic property from ODH to combustion. The different types of vanadyl species were identified by UV–visible and IR measurements in samples with different vanadium loadings. It was estimated that isolated vanadyl species with tetrahedral coordination, which were found mainly on the catalysts with vanadium loading lower than 0.5 at.%, became the active site for the aldehyde formation through the interaction with Cs. As a plausible reaction path giving acrolein from ethane, cesium-catalyzed cross-condensation between acetaldehyde and formaldehyde, formed in the reaction, was proposed. Polymeric vanadyl species with octahedral coordination and vanadium–oxygen clusters with dioxo tetrahedral coordination were detected in the samples with medium (0.5–5.0 at.%) and high (10 and 20 at.%) vanadium loadings, respectively. Both species show the ODH catalytic property without cesium, but they bring about a deep oxidation of ethane if cesium is added to the catalysts.

The CrHZSM-5 catalysts with trace amount of Cr were firstly used for catalytic cracking of isobutane, and the effect of Crloading on the catalytic performances of CrHZSM-5 catalysts for the cracking of isobutane was also studied. The results suggested that when the loading of Cr in the CrHZSM-5 catalysts was less than 0.038 mmol/g Cr, especially at Cr loading of 0.004 mmol/g, both the reactivity of isobutane cracking and the selectivity to light olefins of CrHZSM-5 samples were greatly enhanced compared with the unpromoted HZSM-5, and very high yields of olefins(C2+C3) and ethylene were obtained. For instance, the yield of olefins(C2+C3) and ethylene reached 56.1% and 30.8%, respectively, at 625 ℃ when 0.004 mmol/g Cr was loaded on HZSM-5sample.