The influence of hydrothermal crystallization temperature on a novel FDU-12 mesoporous composite assembled by ZSM-5 nanoclusters and its hydrodesulfurization performance for DBT and FCC diesel

Abstract A novel FDU-12 composite assembled by the ZSM-5 nanoclusters, which contained the primary and secondary building units of ZSM-5 zeolites, was synthesized successfully by in-situ assembly crystallization method. The influence of hydrothermal crystallization temperature on the properties of FDU-12 materials was studied comprehensively. The as-synthesized materials and catalysts, named as ZF-T and NiMo/ZF-T, were characterized by various methods, including XRD, nitrogen physisorption, pyridine-FTIR, H 2 -TPR, HRTEM and XPS characterization. The characterization results showed that NiMo/ZF-T series catalysts exhibited the satisfactory pore properties, more moderate metal-support interaction, preferable dispersion and sulfidation degree of Mo species than those of the commercial NiMo/Al 2 O 3 , which led to better hydrotreating performance than those of NiMo/Al 2 O 3 (except NiMo/ZF-140 °C). Moreover, when the hydrothermal crystallization temperature was 110 °C, the obtained NiMo/ZF-110 °C catalyst achieved the best HDS and HDN efficiencies of 98.6% and 99.5%, respectively, which could be mainly ascribed to the synergistic effects of the largest specific surface area, the best dispersion and the highest sulfidation degree of Mo species as well as its appropriate acidic properties and moderate metal-support interaction.