The Development of Metal-Carbon Catalysts for Oxidative Desulfurization of Diesel Fractions

Metal-carbon materials M/CNTs (M = Ce, Сu, Mo) were synthesized by incipient wetness impregnation and their physicochemical characteristics were studied using various methods (inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry, thermal analysis coupled with mass spectrometry, low-temperature nitrogen adsorption, X-ray diffraction and structural analysis, scanning electron microscopy, and Raman spectroscopy). It was found that M/CNTs (M = Ce, Сu, Mo) are the mesoporous materials consisting of carbon nanotubes with deposited СeO2, Сu2O/Cu or МоО3/MoO2 particles, respectively. The dispersion of supported species and their deposition uniformity improve in the series Сu < Се < Мо. The type of metal was shown to affect thermal stability as well as the textural and structural properties of the samples. The thermal stability of materials increases in the series Ce < Cu ≈ Mo, which is caused by different redox properties of the metals and also by the composition of products of the metal precursor decomposition. It is promising to use the developed materials as the catalysts for deep purification of diesel fraction components from sulfur compounds.