Synthesis of Special Morphology ZnO Materials and the Performance for Reaction Adsorption Desulfurization of Thiophene

Special morphology ZnO materials with smaller crystallite size were synthesized by hydrothermal homogeneous precipitation method, and the corresponding Ni/ZnO adsorbents were prepared by incipient impregnation method. The materials obtained were characterized by FE-SEM and XRD methods. The structure and the morphology of the porous materials were characterized by XRD, SEM, N2 adsorption-desorption and TEM. Reactive adsorption desulfurization (RADS) of model gasoline using thiophene as model sulfur-containing compounds over Ni/ZnO adsorbent was carried out in a fixed bed reactor in the presence of hydrogen. The results showed that both the crystalline size and BET surface areas of special morphology ZnO were better than that of commercial ZnO materials. Meanwile, the activity evaluations indicated that the Ni/ZnO adsorbents prepared with special morphology ZnO exhibited good activity of removing thiophene. The sulfur adsorption capacity was maximized depending on surface morphology and particle size of ZnO particles.