Journal article
Engineering Ni-Mo-S Nanoparticles for Hydrodesulfurization
Nanoparticle engineering for catalytic applications requires both a synthesis technique for the production of well-defined nanoparticles and measurements of their catalytic performance. In this paper, we present a new approach to rationally engineering highly active Ni-Mo-S nanoparticle catalysts for hydrodesulfurization (HDS), i.e., the removal of sulfur from fossil fuels.
Nanoparticle catalysts are synthesized by the sputtering of a Mo75Ni25 metal target in a reactive atmosphere of Ar and H2S followed by the gas aggregation of the sputtered material into nanoparticles. The nanoparticles are filtered by a quadrupole mass filter and subsequently deposited on a planar substrate, such as a grid for electron microscopy or a microreactor.
By varying the mass of the deposited nanoparticles, it is demonstrated that the Ni-Mo-S nanoparticles can be tuned into fullerene-like particles, flat-lying platelets, and upright-oriented platelets. The nanoparticle morphologies provide different abundances of Ni-Mo-S edge sites, which are commonly considered the catalytically important sites.
Using a microreactor system, we assess the catalytic activity of the Ni-Mo-S nanoparticles for the HDS of dibenzothiophene. The measurements show that platelets are twice as active as the fullerene-like particles, demonstrating that the Ni-Mo-S edges are more active than basal planes for the HDS. Furthermore, the upright-standing orientation of platelets show an activity that is six times higher than the fullerene-like particles, demonstrating the importance of the edge site number and accessibility to reducing, e.g., sterical hindrance for the reacting molecules.
Language: | English |
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Publisher: | American Chemical Society |
Year: | 2018 |
Pages: | 3454-3460 |
ISSN: | 15306992 and 15306984 |
Types: | Journal article |
DOI: | 10.1021/acs.nanolett.8b00472 |
ORCIDs: | Bodin, Anders , Kibsgaard, Jakob , Chorkendorff, Ib and Christoffersen, Ann-Louise N. |