Sonochemical preparation of supported hydrodesulfurization catalysts

N A Dhas; A Ekhtiarzadeh; K S Suslick

doi:10.1021/ja010516y

Sonochemical preparation of supported hydrodesulfurization catalysts

J Am Chem Soc. 2001 Aug 29;123(34):8310-6. doi: 10.1021/ja010516y.

Authors

N A Dhas¹, A Ekhtiarzadeh, K S Suslick

Affiliation

¹ School of Chemical Sciences, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 600 South, Mathews Avenue, Urbana, IL 61801, USA.

PMID: 11516280
DOI: 10.1021/ja010516y

Abstract

Sonochemical preparation of Co and Ni promoted MoS(2) supported on alumina was achieved by high-intensity ultrasonic irradiation of isodurene solutions containing molybdenum carbonyl, dicobalt octacarbonyl, elemental sulfur, and Al(2)O(3) or Ni-Al(2)O(3) under Ar flow. The sonochemically prepared catalysts were characterized by elemental analysis, XPS, SEM, TEM, and XEDS, and hydrodesulfurization (HDS) activity evaluated for thiophene and dibenzothiophene substrates. The TEM studies on the sonochemically prepared catalysts indicate the formation of layered hexagonal MoS(2) (lattice fringes approximately 6.2 A) on the alumina support. The sonochemically prepared Co-Mo-S/Al(2)O(3), Ni-Mo-S/Al(2)O(3), and Co-Ni-Mo-S/Al(2)O(3) are extremely active catalysts for the HDS of thiophene and dibenzothiophene, with activities severalfold those of comparable commercial catalysts under identical conditions. The layered structure of MoS(2) remained intact after 120 h of HDS, and the catalyst is reusable.