Designing recyclable Cu/ZrSBA-15 for efficient thiophene removal

• Demonstration of Platelet Cu/ZrSBA-15 toward excellent thiophene adsorption.
• Adsorption isotherms and kinetics have been correlated with the data.
• Good recyclability after an easy regeneration treatment.
• Synergy of introduced Zr and platelet shape toward uniform dispersion of Cu species.

Adsorptive desulfurization (ADS) is an effective method for the selective capture of thiophenic sulfur compounds, and the ADS capacity of an adsorbent has been demonstrated to strongly depend on the dispersion degree of active species. Herein, series of zirconia-modified SBA-15 (ZrSBA-15) framework with uniformly dispersed Cu sites have been prepared via a urea-assisted homogeneous deposition strategy, aiming for efficient adsorption towards thiophene. The resultant materials were thoroughly characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), N2 adsorption–desorption isotherms, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and diffuse reflectance spectra (DRS) analysis techniques. It was revealed that the Cu species were highly dispersed inside the ordered ZrSBA-15 framework with platelet morphology, rather than aggregation outside the surface, leading to excellent adsorption capacity for thiophene (up to 9.35 mg/g at 50 °C). The adsorption kinetics and isotherm data can be well described by the pseudo-second-order kinetics model and the Langmuir isotherm, respectively. Spent adsorbent can be regenerated by simple heating treatment in N2 at 500 °C, without obvious losing of thiophene adsorption capacity even after eight cycles.

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