Highly selective PdCu/amorphous silica-alumina (ASA) catalysts for groundwater denitration

Catalytic nitrate reduction is a promising technology in groundwater purification. In this study, PdCu bimetallic catalysts supported on an industrial amorphous silica-alumina (ASA) were synthesized and used to simulate catalytic removal of nitrate in groundwater. The catalysts exhibited very high activity and the highest catalytic selectivity toward N₂O and N₂ was 90.2%. The optimal Pd/Cu weight ratio was four. Relatively low reduction temperature was found benefit the catalytic stability and 300 °C was the appropriate reduction temperature during catalyst preparation. With an average particle size 5.4 nm, the metal particles were very uniformly distributed on the catalyst surface prepared with the codeposition method. This kept the catalyst more stable than the PdCu/Al₂O₂ catalyst with larger metal particles. According to XRD, TEM, and XPS results, the metals maintained zero-valence but aggregated by about 2 nm during the denitration reaction, which caused gradual deactivation of the catalysts. Little leaching of Cu and Pd from the catalyst might also have a slightly negative impact to the stability of the catalysts. A simple treatment was found to redistribute the particles on the deactivated catalysts, and high catalytic activity was recovered after this process.