Journal of Chemical and Engineering Data, Vol.65, No.10, 4924-4934, 2020
High Adsorption Performance of Bimetal Ag,Ti-Doped SiO2 Aerogel Composites for the Removal of Thiophenic Compounds from Model Fuels
Ag2O/SiO2-TiO2-n aerogel composites with different molar ratios of Si/Ti, prepared by a sol-gel method followed by the ambient pressure drying technique, were used for the adsorptive removal of thiophenic compounds from model fuels, along with Ag2O/SiO2-50. The physicochemical properties of aerogel composites were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), X-ray fluorescence (XRF) spectroscopy, Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) method, Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy, NH3 temperature-programmed desorption (TPD), and pyridine (Py) FT-IR spectroscopy. The results indicated that doping Ti into Ag2O/SiO2-50 led to a slight decrease in the specific surface area, an obvious increase in the actual content of Ag, and the appearance of weak Lewis acid centers on the surface. The data for equilibrium adsorption of thiophene over Ag2O/SiO2-50 and Ag2O/SiO2-TiO2-50 were well fitted to the Langmuir and Freundlich isotherm equations. The kinetic experimental data of Ag2O/SiO2-TiO2-50 was well fitted by a pseudo-second-order model. For two adsorbents, negative values of Delta G indicated that the adsorption processes were spontaneous. The adsorption process on Ag2O/SiO2-TiO2-50 was more favorable at higher temperatures, which was contrary to that on Ag2O/SiO2-50. The incorporation of Ti into Ag2O/SiO2-50 can improve the adsorptive desulfurization performance owing to the increase in the actual content of Ag species (pi-complexation centers), and thiophenic compounds can be adsorbed via Lewis acid-base interaction and S-Ti binding besides pi-complexation. Among Ag2O/SiO2-TiO2-n, Ag2O/SiO2-TiO2-50 performed the best.