Oxidative Desulfurization of Dibenzothiophene Using M/TiO2/MWW (M = Cu, Ag, and Au) Composite

• Published in: Russian Journal of Physical Chemistry A Vol. 95; no. Suppl 1; pp. S23 - S32
• Main Authors: Fard, Narges Elmi, Fazaeli, Reza, Yousefi, Mohammad, Abdolmohammadi, Shahrzad
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Moscow Pleiades Publishing 01-04-2021; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Catalysts; Chemical Kinetics and Catalysis; Chemistry; Chemistry and Materials Science; Copper; Desulfurizing; Dibenzothiophene; Gold; Hydrogen peroxide; Oxidation; Physical Chemistry; Response surface methodology; Silver; Sulfur; Synthesis; Titanium dioxide; oxidation; MWW; CCD; Au/TiO; RSM; DBT
• ISSN: 0036-0244; 1531-863X
• DOI: 10.1134/S0036024421140065

Zeolite MWW was synthesized by microwave and hydrothermal method, and used as the support on which M/TiO
2
(M = Cu, Ag, and Au) was loaded via wet impregnation method. Dibenzothiophene (DBT) removal in mild conditions was studied on various catalysts: MWW, Cu/TiO
2
/MWW, Ag/TiO
2
/MWW, and Au/TiO
2
/MWW. Among the synthesized composites, Au/TiO
2
/MWW, Ag/TiO
2
/MWW, and Cu/TiO
2
/MWW had better performance. Also, the results indicated that Au/TiO
2
/MWW considerably outperformed MWW. Response surface methodology (RSM) with central composite design (CCD) was used to study the effects of Au/TiO
2
/MWW composite loading, H
2
O
2
volume, and temperature. Finally, the optimal conditions providing the highest conversion of sulfur (99.99%) were determined as 0.24 g Au/TiO
2
/MWW, 0.26 mL H
2
O
2
and temperature of 59.4°C. Based on the results, Au/TiO
2
/MWW composite was shown to be an efficient catalyst for oxidation of sulfur heterocycles. The results of kinetic study indicated that pseudo first-order model has a good agreement with the experimental data. The desulfurization of gas condensate was studied under optimal conditions. The desulfurization efficiency over Au/TiO
2
/MWW catalyst was 89.11%.