Morphological characterization of vanadium oxide supported on carbon-coated monoliths using AFM

Vanadium has been supported on carbon-coated monoliths with three different loadings, viz. 4, 6 and 8 wt.%. The structure of vanadium catalyst has been characterized by atomic force microscopy, N2 adsorption and XRD. All these techniques agree to indicate that vanadium is dispersed as overlayers up to 6 wt.% loadings. For higher loadings crystallites appear. The size and shape of these crystallites (12 nm average size) have been characterized by AFM. The amount of vanadium per gram of support deposited as monolayer on our carbon support can be higher than in a traditional oxide supports as, e.g. TiO2. This is a consequence of the higher surface area of carbon. The monolayer dispersion of vanadium on the carbon-coated monoliths endows this catalyst with a great potentiality to be used in reactions as, e.g. the SCR of NO at low temperature. # 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved