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Posted on: 11/19/2012 12:00:00 AM... University of Illinois researchers have developed mats of metal oxide nanofibers that have been shown to scrub sulfur from petroleum-based fuels more effectively than traditional materials. Their discovery, published in November in Nature Nanotechnology, has the potential to lower costs and improve performance for fuel-based catalysis, advanced energy applications, and toxic gas removal.

Sulfur compounds in fuels cause problems by releasing toxic gases during combustion, as well as damaging metals and catalysts in engines and fuel cells. They usually are removed using a liquid treatment that adsorbs the sulfur from the fuel, but the process is cumbersome and requires the fuel to be cooled and reheated, making the fuel less energy-efficient.

To solve these problems, researchers have turned to solid metal oxide adsorbents, but those have their own sets of challenges. While they work at high temperatures, eliminating the need to cool and re-heat the fuel, their performance is limited by stability issues, losing their activity after only a few cycles of use.

Because previous studies found that sulfur adsorption works best at the surface of solid metal oxides, The University of Illinois team set out to create a material with maximum surface area, using tiny grains of zinc titanate spun into nanofibers. The nanofiber material is more reactive than the same material in bulk form, enabling complete sulfur removal with less material. The material also stays stable and active after several cycles and the fibrous structure helps avoid the problem of sintering, or clumping, that occurs with other nano-structured catalysts.

For More Information:

• Read Nature Nanotechnology Article

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