Thiophene hydrogenolysis using temperature-programmed surface reaction as a tool to study poison toxicity Original Research Article

In this work, the deactivation of a Ni/SiO2 catalyst by thiophene and H2S during benzene hydrogenation at 200°C was studied. An initial toxicity approximately three times higher for thiophene than for H2S was found. Temperature-programmed surface reaction (TPSR) results of previously adsorbed thiophene suggest that this difference in toxicity may be explained in terms of incomplete thiophene hydrogenolysis at 200°C. TPSR results have also revealed that thiophene is hydrogenolized to a considerable extent on nickel at room temperature.