It was found that, in MoS2/Al2O3 catalysts prepared by exfoliation, the structure of MoS2 is strongly distorted. The catalytic activities of these catalysts and traditionally prepared catalysts toward the hydrodesulfurization of thiophene were compared. It was established that the stacking dimension of MoS2 in the catalysts prepared by exfoliation was 200 Å, whereas it was 20 Å in a standard catalyst. It was demonstrated that, although the number of molybdenum atoms in the edge plane per gram of MoS2 in the catalysts prepared by exfoliation was 10 times smaller than that in the standard catalyst, the activity of these catalysts was close to the activity of the standard catalyst. On this basis, it was suggested that the hydrodesulfurization of thiophene can occur on the basal plane of MoS2 that has a defect-free structure with a distorted environment of molybdenum. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
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