Construction of Fe2O3 loaded and mesopore confined thin-layer titania catalyst for efficient NH3-SCR of NOx with enhanced H2O/SO2 tolerance.

• Thin-layered titania confined in SBA-15 was successfully synthesized by grafting strategy. • The amorphous thin-layered titania exhibited much enhanced surface acidity and regulated electronic state. • Activity of Fe supported titania catalyst were greatly improved, and H 2 O surprisingly promoted the catalyst activity. • The catalyst revealed promising SO 2 resistance, SO 2 was confirmed to have negligible influence on reactants adsorption. TiO 2 is a famous support for selective catalytic reduction of NO with NH 3 (NH 3 -SCR). Engineering the morphology and structure of TiO 2 is effective to modulate the interaction with surface dispersed component, providing further opportunity to improve catalytic performance. In this study, we rationally construct thin-layered titania confined in mesoporous silica via a surface grafting strategy. It exhibits high specific surface area with amorphous structure along mesopore channel, and much more Brønsted acid sites are generated than bulk TiO 2 due to defect induced oxygen-related species. After iron oxide loading, both the denitration activity and H 2 O/SO 2 tolerance are greatly promoted as compared to conventional Fe/TiO 2. Further characterizations reveal the obtained catalyst displays uniform iron oxide dispersion and intense Fe-Ti interaction, resulting in superior redox behavior and increased acidity. Notably, it is found the introduction of H 2 O exhibits a promotional effect on NO conversion efficiency, which can be ascribed to enhancement of NH 3 adsorption capability. Besides, SO 2 has negligible disturbance on NO/NH 3 adsorption, leading to superior sulfur tolerance. The result of present study demonstrates vital role of surface structure engineering of TiO 2 for sustainable denitration, which opens up a new avenue for designing well-performed and stable NH 3 -SCR catalysts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]