The addition of boron on a CoMo/Al
2O
3 catalyst has been reported in our previous studies to generate a more active Co-Mo-S (pseudo) Type II. In spite of the formation of the Co-Mo-S (pseudo) Type II, the HDS performance of the catalyst only slightly improved, apparently caused by poor dispersion of MoS
2 particles by the addition of boron. In the present study, citric acid was added to boron-containing Mo/Al
2O
3 and CoMo/Al
2O
3 catalyst to improve the dispersion of MoS
2 particles. Chemical vapor deposition (CVD) technique allowed us to separately study the effect of citric acid on the dispersion of Mo and Co on a CoMo/Al
2O
3 catalyst. We found, by the CVD technique, that the addition of citric acid greatly improved the HDS performance of the catalyst.
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