Structure and Thiophene Hydrodesulfurization Activity of MoS2/Al2O3 Catalysts

It was found that, in MoS₂/Al₂O₃ catalysts prepared by exfoliation, the structure of MoS₂ is strongly distorted. The catalytic activities of these catalysts and traditionally prepared catalysts toward the hydrodesulfurization of thiophene were compared. It was established that the stacking dimension of MoS₂ in the catalysts prepared by exfoliation was 200 Å, whereas it was 20 Å in a standard catalyst. It was demonstrated that, although the number of molybdenum atoms in the edge plane per gram of MoS₂ in the catalysts prepared by exfoliation was 10 times smaller than that in the standard catalyst, the activity of these catalysts was close to the activity of the standard catalyst. On this basis, it was suggested that the hydrodesulfurization of thiophene can occur on the basal plane of MoS₂ that has a defect-free structure with a distorted environment of molybdenum.