Promoting desulfurization capacity and separation efficiency simultaneously by the novel magnetic Fe3O4@PAA@MOF-199

Abstract

The world is becoming more stringent on lowering the sulfur concentrations in fuels. To fulfill this expectation, a new type of magnetic desulfurization adsorbent, Fe₃O₄@PAA@MOF-199, was designed and fabricated using a facile two-step assembly approach, in which PAA inventively acted like a bridge to incorporate different amounts of magnetite Fe₃O₄ into a MOF-199 crystal matrix. Fe₃O₄@PAA@MOF-199s were demonstrated to be efficient adsorbents for the removal of S-compounds, such as thiophene, benzothiophene (BT) and dibenzothiophene (DBT), from a model fuel, and the sulfur saturated adsorption capacity followed the order of DBT > BT > thiophene. The magnetization of Fe₃O₄@PAA@MOF-199s ensured that the adsorbents had good performance in magnetic separation. The relative high adsorption capacity, the separation efficiency, as well as the stable recyclability indicated that magnetic Fe₃O₄@PAA@MOF-199 would be a promising adsorbent in adsorptive desulfurization.