Three industrial spent S Zorb sorbents extracted from production line were studied with XRD, TPR-MS and XPS. The characterization results of XPS and TPR-MS identified the existence of amorphous Ni_xS_y on industrial spent S Zorb sorbents, while the existing XRD quantitative analysis methods can only provide the long-range order in phase information and the grain size of Ni metal. XPS is a powerful tool to investigate the chemical states of nickel atom and the depthwise distribution of nickel species on S Zorb sorbent. Ni_xS_y and Ni metal species coexist on the industrial spent sorbents, and their percentages to total nickel slightly change with the operating conditions in the surface layer. It proves that Ni_xS_y is a stable intermediate product rather than a transition state. The information can contribute to the better elucidation of S Zorb desulfurization mechanism and offer a new direction for selectivity optimization of industrial S Zorb sorbents.
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