We introduce a tertiary transition metal sulfide nanostructure, Pt-Co-Mo-S, for catalytic hydrodesulfurization (HDS) of sulfur-containing molecules in crude oil distillates with the aim to produce ultra-low sulfur transport fuels. The addition of only ppm-levels of Pt to a standard industrial Co-Mo-S catalyst boosts the HDS activity by up to 46%. The promotional effect is examined by combining atomic-resolution Scanning Transmission Electron Microscopy (STEM), Energy Dispersive X-ray Spectroscopy (EDX), X-ray Absorption Near Edge Spectroscopy (XANES) and Density Functional Theory (DFT). It is shown that the Pt-Co-Mo-S catalyst contains predominantly single-layer MoS₂ nanocrystals with Co atoms fully covering the S-edge terminations and Pt atoms uniquely attached to corner and edge sites in a platinum(IV) sulfide-like structural motif. Platinum is suggested to reduce the sulfur binding energy and increase the abundance of coordinately undersaturated sites (CUS) and not necessarily changing the reactivity towards 4,6-DMDBT molecules, although more elaborate studies are needed to address this in detail.

我们引入了叔过渡金属硫化物纳米结构Pt-Co-Mo-S，用于原油馏出物中含硫分子的催化加氢脱硫（HDS），目的是生产超低硫运输燃料。在标准工业Co-Mo-S催化剂中仅添加ppm级的Pt，即可将HDS活性提高多达46％。通过结合原子分辨率扫描透射电子显微镜（STEM），能量色散X射线光谱仪（EDX），X射线吸收近边缘光谱仪（XANES）和密度泛函理论（DFT）来检验促销效果。结果表明，Pt-Co-Mo-S催化剂主要含有单层MoS ₂纳米晶体，Co原子完全覆盖S-edge末端，Pt原子独特地附着在硫化铂（IV）样结构基序的角和边缘位置。尽管需要更详尽的研究来解决这个问题，但建议铂降低硫的结合能并增加不饱和饱和位点（CUS）的丰度，并不一定改变其对4,6-DMDBT分子的反应性。