Sulfur Poisoning of Metals

This chapter provides an overview of the sulfur poisoning of metals. Sulfur apparently bonds so strongly to metal surfaces that marked activity reduction occurs at extremely low gas-phase concentrations of sulfur-containing compounds. In commercial practice, the life of supported metal catalysts may be reduced to only a few months or weeks in the presence of only ppm quantities of sulfur contaminants in the feed. Because of the essentially irreversible adsorption of sulfur compounds on metals, regeneration is usually impossible or impractical. This chapter integrates available information on the interaction of sulfur with metal surfaces with that of poisoning studies to provide a more complete picture of sulfur poisoning and of the mechanism. The chapter stresses the importance of experimental techniques that provide definitive, fundamental information regarding sulfur adsorption and poisoning.