Regulating cerium location in Y zeolite and its influence on adsorptive desulfurization for thiophene in benzene

Abstract

CeY zeolite sorbent was reported to have a high adsorptive desulfurization selectivity for thiophene. However, only the cerium in the supercage, which is larger than the thiophene molecule, is effective for thiophene adsorption. In this case, regulating the cerium location to anchor it more in the surpercage of Y zeolite is an important issue. Herein, the glycine was used as a complexing agent with cerium to control its size, ensuring that the cerium precursor is in the supercage. G0.1CeY were prepared by ion exchange technique with glycine and cerium coordination from NaY. The adsorption capacity of sorbents was measured, and their physical and chemical properties were characterized by XRD, SEM, N2 adsorption/desorption, NH3-TPD, and in situ FT − IR. The glycine complexation could effectively control the location of Ce, so that the G0.1CeY has the highest content of Ce located in the supercage. Moreover, in order to further explore the influence of zeolite type, HY was used as the raw material to prepared G0.1CeHY in the same way. G0.1CeHY has a higher desulfurization performance than that of G0.1CeY, whereas the Ce content in its supercage is lower. The NH3-TPD and Py-FT − IR results that the medium-strong Brønsted acid of the G0.1CeHY sorbent is also effectively for the improvement of desulfurization efficiency. The G0.1CeHY exhibits the hightest desulfurization effectiveness (51 %) and the highest breakthrough adsorption capacity of 5.42 mg/g.