The application and limitation of the above characterization methods for qualitative and quantitative determination of various metal active sites in Cu-based or Fe-based zeolites for NH ₃ -SCR are reviewed.

One-pot synthesized OP-Fe/M22 zeolites exhibit excellent performances in NH₃-SCR reactions.

The NH₃-SCR activities and hydrothermal stabilities of five xCu/MCM-22 zeolites with different Cu loadings (x = 2–10 wt%) prepared by incipient wetness impregnation method were systematically investigated. The physicochemical properties of xCu/MCM-22 zeolites were analyzed by XRD, nitrogen physisorption, ICP-AES, SEM, NH₃-TPD, UV-vis, H₂-TPR and XPS experiments. The Cu species existing in xCu/MCM-22 are mainly isolated Cu²⁺, CuO_x and unreducible copper species. The concentrations of both isolated Cu²⁺ and CuO_x species in xCu/MCM-22 increase with Cu contents, but the increment of CuO_x species is more distinct, especially in high Cu loadings (>4 wt%). NH₃-SCR experimental results demonstrated that the activity of xCu/MCM-22 is sensitive to Cu content at low Cu loadings (≤4 wt%). When the Cu loading exceeds 4 wt%, the NH₃-SCR activity of xCu/MCM-22 is irrelevant to Cu content due to the severe pore blockage effects caused by aggregated CuO_x species. Among the five xCu/MCM-22 zeolites, 4Cu/MCM-22 with moderate Cu content has the best NH₃-SCR performance, which displays higher than 80% NO_x conversions in a wide temperature window (160–430 °C). Furthermore, the hydrothermal aging experiments (xCu/MCM-22 was treated at 750 °C for 10 h under 10% water vapor atmosphere) illustrated that all the xCu/MCM-22 zeolites exhibit high hydrothermal stability in NH₃-SCR reactions.

The synthesis of cyclic carbonates from carbon dioxide (CO₂) and epoxides is a 100% atom economical reaction and an attractive pathway for CO₂ utilisation. Because CO₂ is a thermodynamically stable molecule, the use of catalysts is mandatory in reducing the activation energy of the CO₂ conversion. Considering environmental compatibility and the high-efficiency catalytic conversion of CO₂, there is the strong need to develop green catalysts. Biomass-based catalysts, a type of renewable resource, have attracted considerable attention due to their unique properties—non-toxic, low-cost, pollution-free, etc. In this review, recent advances in the development of biomass-based catalysts for the synthesis of cyclic carbonates by CO₂ and epoxides coupling are summarized and discussed in detail. The effect of biomass-based catalysts, functional groups, reaction conditions, and co-catalysts on the catalytic efficiency and selectivity of synthesizing cyclic carbonates process is discussed. We intend to provide a comprehensive understanding of recent experimental and theoretical progress of CO₂ and epoxides coupling reaction and pave the way for both CO₂ conversion and biomass unitization.

A series of H-MCM-22 zeolites with different Si/Al ratios (H-M22-x, x = 15–90) were hydrothermally synthesized by boron incorporation to investigate the influences of acid density on the methanol-to-hydrocarbon (MTH) performances and deactivation behaviors. The acid density of H-M22-x zeolites is nearly proportional to their aluminum contents; the residual boron barely affects the overall acidity of H-M22-x zeolites. ²⁷Al and ²⁹Si MAS NMR experiments support the existence of competitive occupancy of various framework T sites among boron, aluminum and silicon during zeolite synthesis, which leads to different distribution of Brønsted acid sites/framework aluminum among three types of pores in H-MCM-22 zeolites. Increasing the Si/Al ratio of H-M22-x zeolites leads to a gradual increase in the proportion of Brønsted acid sites in supercages while those in sinusoidal channels decrease. However, the acid density has a significantly larger impact than acid distribution on the MTH performances of H-M22-x zeolites. Increasing the acid density can accelerate the hydrogen transfer reactions in the MTH conversion and promote the formation of aromatics, ethene, and alkanes. The deactivation of H-M22-x zeolites with low acid density (x = 50–90) is mainly ascribed to coke covering the acid sites inside the micropores and partly blocking the pore mouths. Nevertheless, the deactivation of H-M22-x zeolites with high acid density (x = 15–30) is mainly caused by massive coke deposition on the external surface which blocks the pore mouths of inner micropores. The coke on the external surface exhibits a lower decomposition temperature than that inside the micropores. The deactivation behaviors of H-M22-x zeolites for the MTH reaction can be divided into three stages. Firstly, rapid deactivation of supercages occurred for all the H-M22-x zeolites in spite of their different acid densities, suggesting a much stronger influence of pore structure than acidity on the initial deactivation behaviors of H-M22-x zeolites. Secondly, the acid sites in sinusoidal channels of H-M22-x zeolites are highly resistant to coke formation, which dominates the MTH reaction in the second stage. Finally, with the continuous formation of coke in the surface pockets, which gradually covers the acid sites and pore mouths of sinusoidal channels, complete deactivation of H-M22-x zeolites can be observed. GC-MS and UV-vis analysis of partly or completely deactivated H-M22-x zeolites reveals that the retained species in H-M22-x zeolites gradually condense into bulky hydrocarbon species through successive hydrogen transfer reactions and form methylbenzenes, naphthalene, polymethylnaphthalenes, phenalenone, pyrenes and eventually graphite-like carbonaceous species.

OP-Fe-FER-30 show better NH ₃ -SCR activity than IM-Fe/SSZ-20 whether before or after hydrothermal aging treatments, which cause the collapse of zeolite framework, migration and aggregation of iron species and the decease of NH ₃ -SCR activity.