Synthesis and characterization of bimodal mesoporous silica nanoparticles for the removal of sulfur from model fuel

UVM-7 is a bimodal meso/macroporous molecular sieve which formed from the closelypacked silica-coated micelles of a surfactant template. UVM-7 has attracted great attentionin many fields [1-2]. One of the main applications of metal-containing mesoporous silica isthe desulfurization of transport fuels [3,4]. Adsorptive desulfurization of gas oil is apromising alternative to the conventional hydrodesulfurization process used on a large scalein petroleum refining industry [5]. In the present work, different bimetallic nanoparticles,were supported on UVM-7 bimodal mesoporous silica and characterized by proper methods.Then, their capacity on sulfur removal from a model fuel was investigated.