Unsupported transition metal sulfide catalysts: Rational design and activity – property correlations

PETR 22

Pavel Afanasiev, afanas@catalyse.cnrs.fr and Michel Vrinat. Institut de Recherches sur la Catalyse, 2 Av. Albert Einstein, Villeurbanne, 69626, France
This contribution is a tentative to give an overview in the topic of new unsupported sulfide phases for hydrotreating catalysis. Different classes of the unsupported mixed sulfides are considered on a common basis, such as Ni/Co-Mo/W bulk-like sulfides, Chevrel phases, thiospinels, or pentlandites. The advancement of the topic of ternary TMS catalysts is intimately related to the development of appropriate soft chemical routes of their preparation in pure and highly dispersed form. New approaches to the preparation of highly dispersed ternary sulfides are presented. A tentative of comparison of various families of mixed transition metals sulfides is undertaken, on a common basis of thiophene HDS activity. The validity of different property-activity correlations is discussed. The possibility of comparison between bulk sufides and supported counterparts is critically analyzed, as well as the problems of mixed sulfides stability under the reaction conditions.