Fe pillared sodium-modified sepiolite (Fe-NaPILCS) was prepared by intercalation polymerization of iron hydroxyl ions with sodium-treated sepiolite and then calcined at 450 ℃ for 4 h. Cu/Fe-NaPILCS and Cu/Fe-NaSep were prepared by impregnation of Fe-NaPILCS and Fe-NaSep, respectively, with an aqueous solution of Cu-nitrate. These samples were characterized by means of X-ray diffraction (XRD), TGA-DTG, N₂-sorption analysis, H₂-temperature-programmed reduction (TPR), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) techniques and their catalytic performance for the selective catalytic reduction (SCR) of NO by C₃H₆ were also studied. The results of N₂-desorption/adsorption and TGA-DTG showed that due to pillaring, Fe-NaPILCS revealed much higher surface area, pore volume and thermal stability than that of Sep. According to the result of XRD and XPS, there co-exist Fe^3＋/Fe^2＋ and Cu^2＋/Cu^＋ and also the strong interaction among Cu, Fe and support over Cu/Fe-NaPILCS and Cu/Fe-NaSep catalysts. H₂-TPR showed that Cu/Fe-NaPILCS possessed high amount of isolated Cu^2＋ species. Cu/Fe-NaPILCS display more significant activity for selective reduction of NO with C₃H₆ than that of Cu/Fe-NaSep. This maybe related to its higher surface area, pore volume, better catalytic reduction performance and high amount of isolated Cu^2＋ species.

Key words: Cu/Fe-NaPILCS, nitric oxides, propylene, selective catalytic reduction