Three-dimensionally ordered macroporous bulk catalysts with enhanced catalytic performance for thiophene hydrodesulfurization

Abstract

The microstructure tuning of bulk catalysts would significantly influence their physical/chemical properties for the subsequent applications. In this work, the three-dimensionally ordered macroporous (3DOM) bulk catalysts (CoMo, CoMoW and CoW) were successfully fabricated by employing the poly-(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) as hard template. The prepared bulk catalysts were characterized by means of techniques, such as TG/DTG, XRD, low-temperature N2 adsorption-desorption, SEM, etc. The characterization and catalytic performance evaluation results indicated that the unique hierarchical pore system of the 3DOM bulk catalysts could not only supply more available surface area, thus more active sites, but also facilitate the diffusion of the reactants/products to/from the active sites of the bulk catalyst. Moreover, the 3DOM structure of the bulk catalysts was retained after the pre-sulfurization process and hydrodesulfurization reaction, illustrating the relatively high stability of prepared bulk catalysts in the experimental investigation. The 3DOM CoMo bulk catalyst exhibited superior catalytic performance with thiophene conversion of 99.2% at 360 °C in comparison with the CoW and CoMoW bulk catalysts.