Novel magnetic carbon supported molybdenum disulfide catalyst and its application in residue upgrading

A novel hybrid material consisted of carbon covered Fe₃O₄ nanoparticles and MoS₂ nanoflower (FCM) was designed and prepared by micelle-assisted hydrothermal methods. Multiple techniques, including X-Ray diffraction (XRD), high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) were employed to characterize it. The results show that FCM has a flower-like morphology with a 330 nm Fe₃O₄ core as well as 70 nm highly crystalline MoS₂ shell. FCM is superparamagnetic with a saturation magnetization of 35 emu g⁻¹. Then hydrocracking of Canadian bitumen residue (CBR) was applied to estimate its catalytic activity. The results show that FCM exhibits superior catalytic hydrocracking activity compared to bulk MoS₂ and commercial oil-dispersed Mo(CO)₆ by the same Mo loading. Further measurement by elemental analysis, XPS and XRD reveals that the MoS₂ nanoflower with abundant catalytic active sites and covered carbon layer with anti-coke ability donate to the superior upgrading performance. Besides, the catalysts can be easily recovered by the external magnetic field. This work provides a novel kind magnetic nanocatalyst which is potential for slurry-phase hydrocracking applications.