In situ incorporation of nickel nanoparticles into the mesopores of MCM-41 by manipulation of solvent-solute interaction and its activity toward adsorptive desulfurization of gas oil

Highlights: → Nickel nanoparticles were incorporated into the mesopores of MCM-41 via in situ approach. → Synthesized samples (Ni/MCM-41) have well-ordered hexagonal structure. → Pore blocking was not observed after incorporation of nickel nanoparticles into MCM-41. → Synthesized samples showed very good capacity for the adsorption of 4-MDBT from gas oil. - Abstract: In this contribution, different amounts of nickel were incorporated into the mesopores of MCM-41 via an in situ approach. A hydrophobic nickel precursor was incorporated into the nanochannels of mesoporous silica by manipulation of solvent-solute interaction. The synthesized material was characterized using X-ray diffraction, nitrogen physisorption, temperature programmed reduction, and transmission electron microscopy. The results implicate the formation of MCM-41 with well-ordered hexagonal structure and establish also the presence of nickel nanoparticles inside the nanochannels of mesoporous silica. Adsorptive desulfurization of gas oil was conducted using the nickel-incorporated MCM-41 samples. The effects of nickel concentration, temperature of process and feed flow rate on the desulfurization process were examined. The MCM-41 containing 6 wt.% of nickel had both the highest breakthrough sulfur adsorption capacity and total sulfur adsorption capacity, which were 0.69 and 1.67 mg sulfur/g adsorbent, respectively. The breakthrough sulfur adsorption capacity was almost regained after reductive regeneration of spent adsorbent. The obtained results suggest that the method applied for the synthesis of Niy/MCM resulted in formation of well-dispersed, accessible and small nickel nanoparticles incorporated into the pores of MCM-41 which might be an advantage for adsorption of refractory sulfur compounds from low sulfur gas oil.