Vanadium(V) pentoxide (V 2 O 5 ) is used as a catalyst in the conversion of SO 2 to SO 3 in the sulfuric acid plant at the National Iranian Copper Industries Company (NICIC), Sarcheshmeh Copper Complex, Iran. The input SO 2 gas is supplied from the stack of roasting and bessemerization units. In this project, several nanocatalysts of V 2 O 5 were synthesized from two V(IV) precursors, [VO(SO 4 )(OH 2 )]·2H 2 O and [VO(ox)(OH 2 )]. Two precursor complexes, one commercial catalyst from BASF, and the prepared nanocatalysts were fully characterized by FT-IR, TGA, DTA, XRF, and XRD methods. The FE-SEM images show that the nanocatalysts have a particle size of 25 nm. In addition, the catalytic activity of all prepared nanocatalysts and the commercial catalyst (BASF catalyst) were determined using catatest unit. The results show that the nanocatalysts can convert SO 2 to SO 3 with a more than 90 percent yields and their efficiency is more than the commercial V 2 O 5 catalyst (BASF catalyst). Finally, a proper mechanism was proposed for the catalytic conversion of SO 2 to SO 3 by computational methods.
