Aqueous-Phase Preparation of Model HDS Catalysts on Planar Alumina Substrates: Support Effect on Mo Adsorption and Sulfidation.

The role of the oxide support on the structure of the MoS2 active phase (size, morphology, orientation, sulfidation ratio, etc.) remains an open question in hydrotreating catalysis and biomass processing with important industrial implications for the design of improved catalytic formulations. The present work builds on an aqueous-phase surface-science approach using four well-defined α-alumina single crystal surfaces (C (0001), A (112̅0), M (101̅0), and R (11̅02) planes) as surrogates for γ-alumina (the industrial support) in order to discriminate the specific role of individual support facets.