Adsorption of sulfur -containing compounds on CuCl/SBA-15 molecular sieve prepared by the thermal diffusion method

The adsorbent CuCl/SBA-15 was prepared with the thermal diffusion method, the dispersions of CuCl on SBA-15 were studied by XRD, and adsorptive performance of the adsorbents for thiophene was investigated via static adsorption experiments. The effects of CeO₂ added into the adsorbent and toluene content in model fuel on thiophene removal were also studied. The results showed that: CuCl dispersed uniformly on SBA-15 surface when CuCl loading was lower than the threshold, 0.3502 g CuCl/g SBA-15 measured by XRD method. When the CuCl loading amount was 0.33 g CuCl/g SBA-15, the adsorbent had the best desulfurization performance and it's adsorption capacity was high to 0.8767 mmol/g, indicating the threshold effect. With the addition of CeO₂, the adsorption capacity improved 7.3%, and the best quality ratio was m(Ce)/m(Cu)=0.3. There was dramatic decrease in the capacity on CuCl/SBA-15 for thiophene removal in model fuel with a small toluene content, but toluene had a less effect on thiophene adsorption over CuCl/SBA-15 with CeO₂.