Preparing an SbSn intermetallic compound by melt-annealing and application to electric desulfurization of crude oil

We prepared an SbSn intermetallic compound powder with a mixture of equal molar amounts of antimony (Sb) and tin (Sn) by melt-annealing and high-energy ball milling,and characterized the obtained substance with XRD (X-ray diffraction),DSC (differential scanning calorimetry),SEM (scanning electron microscopy),and XPS (X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy). The prepared SbSn has a hexagonal structure with a melting point of 425 °C. The particles have a dendritic appearance in micromorphology images. More Sb atoms are enriched on the surface than Sn atoms. A desulfurization efficiency of up to 33.92% can be obtained when applying this powder as a medium in the electric desulfurization of crude oil under the following conditions: an emulsion with a volumetric ratio of water to oil at 20:80,a surfactant mass fraction in the emulsion of 0.18%,a processing time of 17 h,and a voltage of 9.68 V. SbSn could be a promising catalyst for desulfurizing crude oil. The desulfurization performance is ascribed to the electron cavities formed by current induction.

We prepared an SbSn intermetallic compound powder with a mixture of equal molar amounts of antimony （Sb） and tin （Sn） by melt-annealing and high-energy ball milling, and characterized the obtained substance with XRD （X-ray diffraction）, DSC （differential scanning calorimetry）, SEM （scanning electron microscopy）, and XPS （X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy）. The prepared SbSn has a hexagonal structure with a melting point of 425 ℃. The particles have a dendritic appearance in micromorphology images. More Sb atoms are enriched on the surface than Sn atoms. A desulfurization efficiency of up to 33.92% can be obtained when applying this powder as a medium in the electric desulfurization of crude oil under the following conditions an emulsion with a volumetric ratio of water to oil at 20：80, a surfactant mass fraction in the emulsion of 0.18%, a processing time of 17 h, and a voltage of 9.68 V. SbSn could be a promising catalyst for desulfurizing crude oil. The desulfurization performance is ascribed to the electron cavities formed by current induction.