Highly dispersive lanthanum oxide fabricated in confined space of SBA-15 for adsorptive desulfurization

Lanthanum based adsorbents are promising in adsorptive desulfurization due to high activity. The dispersion degree of La 2 O 3 impacts desulfurization performance directly, and the development of an efficient strategy for La 2 O 3 dispersion still remained challenge. Herein, for the first time confined spaces and silanols of as-synthesized SBA-15 were used for dispersion of La 2 O 3 over mesoporous silica. The La(NO 3 ) 3 precursor is directly introduced into the confined spaces between silica walls and template of as-synthesized SAB-15 by solid state dispersion (SSD) strategy. The SSD strategy assists the formation of small sized La 2 O 3 with excellent dispersion after La precursor decomposition by the combined action of confined spaces and silanols. We also demonstrated that up to 20 wt% La 2 O 3 can be highly dispersed over as-synthesized SBA-15 (LaAS-20). Our investigations show that well-dispersion of La 2 O 3 correspond to high desulfurization activity for fuels, and the amount of thiophene captured can reach 0.12 mmol of S/g over LaAS-20, which is better than that over LaCS-20 and other La-doped reported sorbents. Furthermore, LaAS-20 adsorbent showed good stability and regeneration ability, and has potential applications to be applied in adsorptive desulfurization technology.