To clarify the electronic interactions between Fe and V species, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) was performed to probe the valence states of elements on the catalysts surface. As shown in
Fig. 3A, the V 2p
3/2 characteristic peak of i-FeV/Ti is centered at 517.39 eV [
43]. Compared with p-FeV/Ti (517.19 eV), V 2p peaks of i-FeV/Ti show higher binding energies. This variation can be caused by the transfer of more electrons from V to Fe. After K poisoning, the location of V 2p
3/2 characteristic peak on K-i-FeV/Ti barely changes but that on K-p-FeV/Ti shifts to the lower binding energy, indicating that the introduction of K
2O reduces the valence states of V element on the surface for p-FeV/Ti but barely effect i-FeV/Ti. Besides, the V
5+/(V
5++V
4+) ratio of i-FeV/Ti (89.31%) is higher than that of p-FeV/Ti (86.48%), which is in favor of NH
3 adsorption due to the stronger Lewis acidity [
44]. Furthermore, the V
5+/(V
5++V
4+) ratio slightly changes after K
2O is introduced (88.24%) for i-FeV/Ti. As for p-FeV/Ti, the ratio decreases from 86.48 to 81.84% after K
2O poisoning. This phenomenon indicates that
K+ imposes less influence on the electronic property of VO
x species of i-FeV/Ti [
39]. The ratios of Fe
3+/(Fe
3++Fe
2+) were also calculated based on the Fe 2p XPS results shown in
Fig. 3B. There are less Fe
3+ on i-FeV/Ti (57.91%) than on p-FeV/Ti (63.57%). The different ratio of Fe
3+ on two samples exactly proves the electron transfer from V to Fe over i-FeV/Ti, which has mentioned above. When K
2O is introduced, the amount of Fe
3+ declined from 57.91% to 51.03% in i-FeV/Ti. As for p-FeV/Ti, it changes slightly from 63.57% to 60.26%. For K 2p XPS, the peaks located on the same place on both i-FeV/Ti and p-FeV/Ti (Fig. S9 in Supporting information). K
2O is a kind of electron donor that would damage the redox capacity of SCR catalysts, but the electron withdrawing function of Fe protect the true active sites of VO
x species from the attacking of K
2O [
33]. As for the O 1s XPS spectra of all catalysts (Fig. S10 in Supporting information), the peaks located at ~531.46 and ~530.16 eV are attributed to the surface absorbed oxygen (denoted as O
α) and the lattice oxygen (denoted as O
β), respectively [
45]. Generally, O
α is easier to be involved in the SCR reaction [
46]. The O
α/(O
α+ O
β) ratios of i-FeV/Ti, K-i-FeV/Ti, p-FeV/Ti, K-p-FeV/Ti are 19.98%, 15.99%, 12.68%, and 7.61%, respectively. The higher amounts of O
α on the surface of i-FeV/Ti can be resulted from the more O vacancies on the surface of i-FeV/Ti, which may be resulted from the strong interaction between Fe and V species. The introduction of K
2O would certainly cause the loss of O vacancies, leading to the decline of O
a ratios [
22]. While, the loss of O vacancies among K-i-FeV/Ti is less than that of K-p-FeV/Ti, further confirming the strong interaction between Fe and V species as well as the electron withdrawing function of Fe protect the active VO
x sites from K
2O poisoning.