Intellectual Property Office

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“A Novel Method for Preparing High Surface Area Molybdenum Sulfide Catalysts”

PSU Inv. Disc. No 98-1947
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Figure 1: Prior Art (ATTM) vs Invention

Keywords:

Molybdenum sulfide catalysts, hydrocarbon processing; coal liquefaction

Inventors:

Chunshan Song, Madhusudan Kondam, Yoshiharu Yoneyama

Links:

Inventor Website
US Patent # 6,156,693
US Patent # 6,451,729
Related Article

Background:

With skyrocketing energy prices, maximizing the return on fossil fuels is more important than ever. Many different catalysts have been tested for converting and upgrading liquid and solid fuels. The MoS2 catalyst generated from decomposition of ammonium tetrathiomolybdate (ATTM) is more active than that from sulfidation of molybdenum oxide or the reagent MoS2, and thus ATTM has been used as a catalyst precursor for generation of active MoS2 catalyst for hydrogenation of hydrocarbon and for coal liquefaction.

Invention description:

The present invention is a patented and simple method of decomposing ammonium tetrathiomolybdate (ATTM) in an organic solvent with added water under H2 pressure to make MoS2 catalysts. Model compound reactions of 4-(1-naphthylmethyl)bibenzyl (NMBB) were carried out at 350-425 C under H2 pressure in order to examine the activity of the Mo sulfide catalysts generated from ATTM with and without added water for C--C bond cleavage and hydrogenation of aromatic ring. The Mo sulfide catalysts generated from ATTM with added water were much more effective for C--C bond cleavage and hydrogenation of aromatic moieties at 350-425 C than those from ATTM alone. The addition of water is effective for generating highly active Mo sulfide catalyst from ATTM, but water itself does not promote catalytic conversion. Removal of water after the decomposition of ATTM with added water at 350-400 C under H2 pressure by hot purging gives highly active Mo sulfide catalyst.

Advantages:

• Highly active unsupported catalysts
• Patents issued
• Useful in hydrogenation of hydrocarbons and for coal liquefaction
  

Contact:

Bradley A. Swope
Sr. Technology Licensing Officer
Intellectual Property Office
113 Technology Center
The Pennsylvania State Univ.
University Park, PA 16802-7000
Phone: (814) 8673-5387
Fax: (814) 865-3591
E-mail: bradswope@psu.edu