Selective hydrodesulfurization of gasoline on Co/MoS2 ± x catalyst: Effect of sulfur defects in MoS2 ± x

•Co/MoS2 ± x catalysts with rich defects and high stacking layers are employed for selective HDS of model gasoline.•MoS2 ± x (x ≤ 0.06) with different S/Mo atomic ratio is controllably synthesized.•HDS selectivity factor of Co/MoS2 ± x catalysts increases to two times (from 37 to 89) with decreasing the S/Mo atomic ratio of MoS2 ± x.•HDS selectivity can be improved by properly controlling the crystal size of CoMo sulfide crystallites.

To improve the hydrodesulfurization activity while to minimize the hydrogen consumption from the hydrogenation of olefins is of importance for the deep desulfurization of gasoline. Herein, a series of Co/MoS2 ± x catalysts were prepared by impregnating Co-promoter to MoS2 ± x (x ≤ 0.06) with controllably varied S/Mo atomic ratio. The S/Mo atomic ratio of MoS2 ± x in Co/MoS2 ± x catalysts influences the catalytic performance of Co/MoS2 ± x in simultaneously thiophene hydrodesulfurization (HDS) and cyclohexene hydrogenation (HYD) reactions. With decreasing the S/Mo atomic ratio in Co/MoS2 ± x, the HDS selectivity factor (kHDS/kHYD) increases to two times (from 37 to 89), although the catalytic activities of HDS and HYD decrease due to the low content of CoMoS phase. The higher selectivity of Co/MoS2 ± x with lower S/Mo atomic ratio could be well explained by larger size of sulfide crystallites exposed lower corner sites. Therefore, a high HDS selectivity catalyst could be developed by properly controlling the crystal size of sulfide crystallites.

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