Journal of Molecular Catalysis A: Chemical 175 (2001) 179–188 Reaction intermediates in the selective reduction of NO with propene over Ga 2 O 3 -Al 2 O 3 and In 2 O 3 -Al 2 O 3 catalysts Masaaki Haneda a,b,c, , Emmanuel Joubert a , Jean-Christophe Ménézo a , Daniel Duprez a , Jacques Barbier a , Nicolas Bion b , Marco Daturi b , Jacques Saussey b , Jean-Claude Lavalley b , Hideaki Hamada c a Laboratoire de Catalyse en Chimie Organique (LACCO), UMR 6503, CNRS-Université de Poitiers, 40 Avenue du Recteur Pineau, 86022 Poitiers Cedex, France b Laboratoire de Catalyse et Spectrochimie, UMR 6506, CNRS-ISMRA, 6 Bd du Maréchal Juin, F-14050 Caen Cedex, France c National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology, AIST Tsukuba Central 5, 1-1-1 Higashi, Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305-8565, Japan Received 9 January 2001; received in revised form 12 April 2001; accepted 5 May 2001 Abstract Minor products formed in the reaction of NO + C 3 H 6 + O 2 over Ga 2 O 3 -Al 2 O 3 and In 2 O 3 -Al 2 O 3 were identified by using GC–MS technique. A lot of minor products, such as oxygenated, nitrile, nitrite compounds and higher hydrocarbons were detected on both catalysts. The formation of surface nitrile species in the NO + C 3 H 6 + O 2 reaction was also recognized in the diffuse reflectance FT–IR spectra. FT–IR spectra showed that the reaction starts with the formation of adsorbed nitrate (NO 3 - ) species via NO oxidation by O 2 . From the comparison of the distribution of minor products in NO + C 3 H 6 + O 2 and 2-nitropropane oxidation, a reaction pathway in which NO reduction proceeds through the formation of organic nitro compounds and subsequent decomposition to some oxygenated and nitrile compounds was proposed. © 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved. Keywords: NO reduction by propene; Ga 2 O 3 -Al 2 O 3 ; In 2 O 3 -Al 2 O 3 ; GC–MS; Diffuse reflectance FT–IR spectroscopy 1. Introduction Selective reduction of nitrogen oxide (NO x ) with hydrocarbons is one of the most desirable control technologies for the abatement of NO x in diesel and lean burn engine exhausts. While a lot of in- Corresponding author. Tel.: +81-298-61-9326; fax: +81-298-61-4647. E-mail address: m.haneda@aist.go.jp (M. Haneda). vestigations have focused on zeolite-based catalysts [1–3], metal oxide-based catalysts represented by alumina were also found to catalyze the selective reduction of NO [4,5]. Recently, we systematically investigated the catalytic activity of metal-supported alumina (In, Co, Ag, Sn, Ga, Mn/Al 2 O 3 ) prepared by impregnation method [6]. Of these catalysts, In/Al 2 O 3 and Ga/Al 2 O 3 showed relatively high ac- tivity. It was also found that the catalysts prepared by sol–gel method are more effective than those 1381-1169/01/$ – see front matter © 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved. PII:S1381-1169(01)00215-1