Ni-Doped MoS2 Nanoparticles Prepared via Core–Shell Nanoclusters and Catalytic Activity for Upgrading Heavy Oil

Abstract

General hydrotreatment catalyst is alumina supported molybdenum sulfide catalyst which is usually promoted by cobalt and nickel. However, supported catalysts are easily deactivated because of high portion of asphaltenes which cause pore-plugging and mass transfer limitation. For this reason, recent studies are focused on unsupported nano-catalysts especially for slurry reactor application. To synthesize nanomaterials, generally, there are top-down methods such as sputtering, and bottom-up methods using chemical precursors to synthesize nanomaterials. Since the synthesis of nanomaterials with complex chemical formulas is limited in the top-down method, the bottom-up method through liquid phase reaction is mostly used. However, in the case of nanomaterials produced in liquid phase, calcination process is sequentially needed in order to obtain desired crystallinity and to remove impurities. Even if it succeeds in synthesizing uniform and nano-sized materials in liquid phase process, it is difficult to finall...