Abstract: A series of WO3/SBA-16 samples with different W contents were synthesized under hydrothermal conditions using tetraethyl orthosilicate (TEOS) as silica source, ammonium paratungstate as tungsten source, and the mixture of F127 (EO106PO70EP106) and P123 (EO20PO70EP20) as template in strong acidic medium. The corresponding WxC/SBA-16 (x=1, 2) catalysts were prepared by the temperature-programmed carburization (TPC) method using CH4/H2 mixture gases (V(CH4)/V(H2)=1/4) from their oxide precursors. The structures of the samples were characterized by XRD, N2 adsorption/desorption isotherms, TEM, and FTIR. The catalytic performance of the WxC/SBA-16 (x=1, 2) catalysts for the hydrodesulfurization (HDS) of thiophene was evaluated in a continuous-flow fixed-bed quartz reactor. The results indicated that all samples maintained well cage-like structure of SBA-16 mesoporous molecular sieve with a cubic symmetry. In the tungsten carbide catalysts, the tungsten carbide was theW2Cphase when n(Si)/n(W)was from 30 to 10. However, the tungsten carbides were a mixture of W2C and WC phases when n(Si)/n(W) was 7.5. The tungsten carbide catalysts exhibited good catalytic activity for HDS of thiophene.

Key words: SBA-16, Mesoporous molecule sieve, Tungsten oxide, Tungsten carbide, HDS