Facile fabrication of La3+ sites in confined spaces for adsorptive desulfurization

La2O3-modified materials are attractive for adsorptive desulfurization of fuels because of non-toxicity, excellent desulfurization efficiency, and reasonable cost. Nevertheless, the desulfurization activity of such materials strongly relies on the size of La2O3 active sites. Herein, we designed a facile grinding strategy to functionalize KIT-6 with La2O3 for the first time by taking advantage of confined spaces and silanols. The La(NO3)3 precursor was inserted directly to the nanoconfinements sandwiched between silica walls and template in template-containing mesoporous KIT-6. Subsequent calcination not only decomposing La(NO3)3 to La2O3 but also remove template and avoid multiple calcination required in traditional strategies. This leads to the dispersion of La2O3 up to 20 wt%, 20LaAK-6, with smaller size making La2O3-containing adsorbent highly efficient for desulfurization of model fuel and the sulfur adsorption capacity can reach to 0.2 mmol./g, which is obviously higher than that on 20LaCK-6 (0.14 mmol./g) derived from template-free KIT-6 as well as that on other La2O3-based materials reported previously. Furthermore, 20LaAK-6 exhibited outstanding stability and regeneration ability making it attractive to be applied as potential candidate for deep desulfurization of fuels.