Electron transfer behaviour of ternary Fe-Zn-F active phase and its enhancement of hydrodesulfurization activity of DBT

In this work, a ternary hydrodesulfurization catalyst with fluorine introduced into the FeZn bimetallic active sites was prepared by a step-by-step incipient wetness impregnation. Among them, the sulfur removal ability increases gradually with the addition of F, and then tends to remain constant. Compared with FeZn catalyst, the maximum activity of the fluorinated catalyst can increase to 6 times at 613 K. It is found that the synergy effect exists in the ternary FeZnF species according to the characterization results. As a part of the active phase, not only the acidity of the catalyst was improved and the dispersion of metal species was optimized by F, but also the closed cycle of complex electron transfer among Fe-Zn-F was aggravated resulting in the weaken of Fe-O/Fe-S bond. Therefore, the sulfurization degree of FeZnF(x) was improved which leads to more active sites and noteworthy HDS activity.