Two‐step hydrothermal preparation of poor crystalline MoS 2 and its enhanced performance for dibenzothiophene hydrodesulphurisation

Abstract

Poor crystalline MoS2 was synthesised by a novel two-step hydrothermal method, including aging and hydrothermal stages. The structures were characterised by different analytical methods such as X-ray diffraction (XRD), Brunauer–Emmett–Teller, field emission scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). The synthesised products were typical mesoporous materials with a high specific surface area (273 m2/g). XRD and XPS displayed that the products were poor crystalline MoS2 mixed with metal Mo and Mo4+/(Mo + Mo4+) was 72.6%. The electron microscopy results showed that the products were uniform bent nanosheets with150 nm diameter and 3–5 layers. Furthermore, the product displayed excellent hydrodesulphurisation performance of dibenzothiophene (DBT) and the DBT conversion reached 87.3%. Compared with the one-step hydrothermal method, the two-step one was able to shorten the reaction time by 12 h, create more active sites and affect crystalline, composition, specific surface area and morphology of products.