Abstract
The present study focuses on the new method for preparation of activated carbon (AC), activated carbon/zinc oxide (AC/ZnO), and activated carbon/zinc oxide/nickel oxide (AC/NiO/ZnO), as potential alternative adsorbents to commercially activated carbon (CAC) for the desulfurization of model diesel fuels (MDFs) at ambient temperature. The textural properties, the morphology and the crystallinity of as-synthesized adsorbents were examined by N-2-physisorption, field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM) and X-ray diffraction (XRD), respectively. The as-developed adsorbents were evaluated for desulfurization of thiophene (T), benzothiophene (BT), and dibenzothiophene (DBT) in n-hexane. Our results show that the incorporation of metal oxides (ZnO and NiO) onto the surface of activated carbon enhanced the adsorption capacity significantly. AC/NiO/ZnO possessed the highest adsorption capacity among the adsorbents and could be employed as a low-cost adsorbent for adsorptive desulfurization.