Three dimensional nanostructured catalyst aerogels for enhanced hydrodesufurization

With ever increasing demand for cleaner fuels and stringent specifications applied on acceptable sulfur limits in petroleum fuels are becoming challenging task for the refineries. Therefore, the development of active, stable and low cost catalyst systems for efficient hydrodesulfurization (HDS) is highly requisite. In present work, a facile and scalable preparation method for nanostructured 3D assembly of 2D molybdenum sulfide and graphene porous aerogels as HDS catalyst was reported. These nanohybrid catalysts were in-situ synthesized from sulfur containing Mo (ammonium tertrathiomolybdate), graphite oxide under one step hydrothermal conditions. Further, thermal treatment at moderate conditions produces a highly interconnected macroporous network of thermally reduced GO having finely dispersed few-layered 2D MoS2 nanosheets impregnated with promoter (P) nanoparticles was observed. The resulting nanohybrids were deeply investigated by means of several techniques. These 3D assemblies exhibits enhanced catalytic performance in the hydrodesulphurization (HDS) of dibenzothiphene (DBT) with sustained recyclability in compared previously reported HDS catalysts. The presented synthesis method can be applied into the large scale production of metal sulfide/oxide co-doped 2D MoS2/graphene aerogel catalysts for wide range of oil and gas industry applications.