Selective catalytic reduction of nitrogen oxides (NO
x
) with ammonia (NH3–SCR) is
an
efficient NO
x
reduction strategy, while
the denitrification (deNO
x
) catalysts suffer from serious deactivation due to the coexistence
of multiple poisoning substances, such as alkali metal (e.g., K),
SO2, etc., in industrial flue gases. It
is essential to understand the interaction among various poisons and
their effects on the deNO
x
process. Herein, the ZSM-5 zeolite-confined MnSmO
x
mixed (MnSmO
x
@ZSM-5) catalyst
exhibited better deNO
x
performance after the poisoning of K, SO2, and/or K&SO2 than the MnSmO
x
and MnSmO
x
/ZSM-5 catalysts, the deNO
x
activity of which at high temperature (H-T)
increased significantly (>90% NO
x
conversion
in the range of 220–480 °C). It has been demonstrated
that K would occupy both redox and acidic sites, which severely reduced
the reactivity of MnSmO
x
/ZSM-5 catalysts.
The most important, K element is preferentially deposited at −OH
on the surface of ZSM-5 carrier due to the electrostatic attraction
(−O–K). As for the K&SO2 poisoning catalyst,
SO2 preferred to be combined with the surface-deposited
K (−O–K–SO2ads) according to XPS and
density functional theory (DFT) results, the poisoned active sites
by K would be released. The K migration behavior was induced by SO2 over K-poisoned MnSmO
x
@ZSM-5
catalysts, and the balance of surface redox and acidic site was regulated,
like a synergistic promoter, which led to K-poisoning buffering and
activity recovery. This work contributes to the understanding of the
self-detoxification interaction between alkali metals (e.g., K) and
SO2 on deNO
x
catalysts and provides a novel strategy for the adaptive use of
one poisoning substance to counter another for practical NO
x
reduction.