Effect of surfactants on preparation of MoS₂ catalyst by a hydrothermal method

MoS₂ hydrodesulfurization catalyst was prepared by hydrothermal method. The resulting materials were characterized by BET, XRD, SEM and TEM. The influences of different surfactants on activity of catalyst were studied by measuring the hydrodesulfurization (HDS) of thiophene. The results showed that the catalyst particles with the addition of surfactants were loose, while the catalyst without the addition of surfactant exhibited serious agglomeration phenomenon. The surface area, pore volume, diameter and the number of the stacked layer of the catalysts with the addition of surfactants were much greater than those of catalysts without surfactants. The catalysts with surfactants showed high activity in the HDS of thiophene, the conversion of thiophene could reach to 97.0% at 573 K and 4.0 MPa pressure. Furthermore, the catalyst with the addition of cation surfactants showed the highest activity among these catalysts, and the conversion of thiophene was 99.9%. By comparing the conversion, the reactivity order of the catalysts was: Mo-S-C>Mo-S-S>Mo-S-P>Mo-S-N.