The nature and distribution of Cu species in Cu-SSZ-13 play a vital role in selective catalytic reduction of NO by NH

3

(NH

3

-SCR)

but existing methods for adjusting the Cu distribution are complex and difficult to control. Herein

we report a simple and effective ion-exchange approach to regulate the Cu distribution in the one-pot synthesized Cu-SSZ-13 that possesses sufficient initial Cu species and thus provides a “natural environment” for adjusting Cu distribution precisely. By using this proposed strategy

a series of CuSSZ-13

x

zeolites with different Cu contents and distributions were obtained. It is shown that the dealumination of the as-synthesized Cu-SSZ-13 during the ion-exchange generates abundant vacant sites in the double six-membered-rings of the SSZ-13 zeolite for relocating Cu

2+

species and thus allows the redistribution of the Cu species. The catalytic results showed that the ion-exchanged Cu-SSZ-13 zeolites exhibit quite different catalytic performance in NH

3

-SCR reaction but superior to the parent counterpart. The structure–activity relationship analysis indicates that the redistribution

of Cu species rather than other factors (

e.g

.

crystallinity

chemical composition

and porous structure) is responsible for the improved NH

3

-SCR performance and SO

2

and H

2

O resistance. Our work offers an effective method to precisely adjust the Cu distribution in preparing the industrial SCR catalysts.