V2O5-WO3/TiO2 catalysts were prepared by wet and dry impregnation methods, respectively, and the deactivation effects of KCl on their NH3 - SCR activities were investigated. The catalysts were characterized by powder X-ray diffraction (XRD), inductively coupled plasma (ICP), Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET), Raman, H-2 temperature-programmed reaction (TPR), infrared spectra (IR) and NH3 oxidation. The wet-impregnated catalyst shows higher SCR activities before and after the alkali poisoning compared with the dry-impregnated one. The Raman results show that more polymeric vanadia species appear on the wet-impregnated sample, whereas the isolated form is predominant on the dry-impregnated sample. The transformation of vanadia from isolated to polymeric species increases the acidity of the catalyst and the NH3 oxidation activity. The activation of the adsorbed ammonia appears to be a determinant of the SCR reaction over V2O5WO3/TiO2 catalysts, and is responsible for the higher activity of the wet-impregnated catalyst. Furthermore, the isolated vanadia species is more likely to combine with potassium to produce inert materials, and hereby the dry-impregnated catalyst is more severely deactivated. (C) 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.