The literature from the past few years dealing with hydrodesulfurization catalysts to deeply remove the sulfur-containing compounds in fuels is reviewed in this communication. We focus on the typical transition metal sulfides (TMS) Ni/Co-promoted Mo, W-based bi- and tri-metallic catalysts for selective removal of sulfur from typical refractory compounds. This review is separated into three very specific topics of the catalysts to produce ultra-low sulfur diesel. The first issue is the supported catalysts; the second, the self-supported or unsupported catalysts and finally, a brief discussion about the theoretical studies. We also inspect some details about the effect of support, the use of organic and inorganic additives and aspects related to the preparation of unsupported catalysts. We discuss some hot topics and details of the unsupported catalyst preparation that could influence the sulfur removal capacity of specific systems. Parameters such as surface acidity, dispersion, morphological changes of the active phases, and the promotion effect are the common factors discussed in the vast majority of present-day research. We conclude from this review that hydrodesulfurization performance of TMS catalysts supported or unsupported may be improved by using new methodologies, both experimental and theoretical, to fulfill the societal needs of ultra-low sulfur fuels, which more stringent future regulations will require.

This article reviews the current state and development of thermal catalytic processes using transition metals (TM) supported on zeolites (TM/Z), as well as the contribution of theoretical studies to understand the details of the catalytic processes. Structural features inherent to zeolites, and their corresponding properties such as ion exchange capacity, stable and very regular microporosity, the ability to create additional mesoporosity, as well as the potential chemical modification of their properties by isomorphic substitution of tetrahedral atoms in the crystal framework, make them unique catalyst carriers. New methods that modify zeolites, including sequential ion exchange, multiple isomorphic substitution, and the creation of hierarchically porous structures both during synthesis and in subsequent stages of post-synthetic processing, continue to be discovered. TM/Z catalysts can be applied to new processes such as CO₂ capture/conversion, methane activation/conversion, selective catalytic NO_x reduction (SCR-deNO_x), catalytic depolymerization, biomass conversion and H₂ production/storage.

Mesostructured pillared zeolite materials in the form of lamellar phases with a crystal structure of mordenite (MOR) and ZSM-5 (MFI) were grown using CTAB as an agent that creates mesopores, in a one-pot synthesis; then into the CTAB layers separating the 2D zeolite plates were introduced by diffusion the TEOS molecules which were further hydrolyzed, and finally the material was annealed to remove the organic phase, leaving the 2D zeolite plates separated by pillars of silicon dioxide. To monitor the successive structural changes and the state of the atoms of the zeolite framework and organic compounds at all the steps of the synthesis of pillared MOR and MFI zeolites, the nuclear magnetic resonance method (NMR) with magic angle spinning (MAS) was applied. The ²⁷Al and ²⁹Si MAS NMR spectra confirm the regularity of the zeolite frameworks of the as synthetized materials. Analysis of the ¹H and ¹³C MAS NMR spectra and an experiment with variable contact time evidence a strong interaction between the charged “heads” –[N(CH₃)₃]⁺ of CTAB and the zeolite framework at the place of [AlO₄]⁻ location. According to ²⁷Al and ²⁹Si MAS NMR the evacuation of organic cations leads to a partial but not critical collapse of the local zeolite structure.

We study the assembling of small gold clusters subject to collisions and close contact coalescence by using molecular dynamics simulations to simulate events that occur typically in the sputtering process of synthesis. Our results support the notion that the kinetics of coalescence processes strongly determine the geometry and structure of the final particle. While impact velocities, relative orientations, and the initial shape of the interacting particles are unlikely to strictly determine the structural details of the newly formed particle, we found that high initial temperatures and/or impact velocities increase the probability of appearance of icosahedral-like structures, Wulff polyhedra are likely to be formed as a product of the interactions between nanospheres, while the appearance of fcc particles of approximately cuboctahedral shape is mainly due to the interaction between icosahedra.