A controllable synthesis of nitrogen-doped mesoporous carbon supported MoS2 catalysts for hydrodesulfurization of thiophene

A highly active and stable catalyst for hydrodesulfurization (HDS) was developed based on the in situ formation of MoS2 on nitrogen-doped mesoporous carbon (MoS2/NMC). N-Doped mesoporous carbon (NMC) was prepared using urea and glucose as precursors and silica nanospheres as templates for achieving mesoporous structures via an in situ self-assembly process. Taking advantage of its high specific surface area and its uniform and adjustable pore size, MMC provides a favourable microenvironment for deposit of highly dispersed MoS2. It was demonstrated that the resulting MoS2/NMC catalysts exhibited an excellent catalytic activity and recycling stability in HDS of thiophene. Pore size and N content of NMC support can be adjusted by the size of the silica template and the amount of urea. The as-prepared 30MoS2/NMC-10 catalyst achieved a compete conversion of thiophene, indicating that an appropriate amount of N content in carbon support can enhance HDS activity. This simple and versatile method also can be extended to cover many kinds of other supported catalysts for broad applications in many other catalytic reactions in the future.