Deep oxidative desulfurization of model fuels catalyzed by polyoxometalates anchored on amine-functionalized ceria doped MCM-41 with molecular oxygen

Abstract

Novel composite materials of vanadium-substituted Keggin-type polyoxometalates anchored on amine-functionalized Ce-MCM-41 (POM/APTES-CeM) are successfully synthesized and fully characterized by FT-IR, XRD, N₂ adsorption–desorption isotherms, SEM, TEM, EDX, and XPS. The catalytic activities of these new catalysts are evaluated for the oxidative desulfurization of the model fuel with molecular oxygen as an oxidant. Meanwhile, the optimal reaction conditions are investigated, including the loading amount of POM, catalyst mass, reaction temperature, agitation rate and the amount of oxygen. This result shows that PW₉V₃/APTES-CeM-50 exhibits the highest catalytic activity with a desulfurization performance of 99.26% as well as brilliant reusability and catalytic efficiency with slight diminution after being used consecutively eight times. Moreover, the kinetic study displays that the oxidative desulfurization process conforms to the pseudo-first-order model.