Highly Enhanced Adsorption of Dimethyl Disulfide from Model Oil on MOF-199/Attapulgite Composites

MOF-199/attapulgite (APT) composite was synthesized by solvothermal method to remove dimethyl disulfide (DMDS) from model oil. Attapulgite was introduced to reduce the size of MOF-199. Both the small-sized MOF-199 and the mesoporous structure provided by APT facilitate pore diffusion, thus dramatically improving the performance for DMDS adsorption. The desulfurization performance of the composites with varying weight percent of MOF-199 was investigated by dynamic tests. The results showed that the optimum adsorption temperature was 30 °C and the maximum breakthrough capacity was 119.3 mg S/g MOF (with 50 wt %MOF-199). The improvement (43.0 mg S/g MOF for pure MOF-199) could be attributed to shorter diffusion channels, efficient utilization of active sites, and larger specific surface area of small-sized MOF-199 particles formed by introducing APT into the growth of MOF-199. The composite sustained excellent desulfurization performance after five cycles, indicating a promising adsorbent for DMDS removal.