Modified Mesoporous HMS Supported V/W for Oxidative Desulfurization of Dibenzothiophene

This study examines the synthesis of two V/W-HMS (hexagonal mesoporous silica) compounds with various vanadium and tungsten loadings and their catalytic activities for oxidative desulfurization of dibenzothiophene (DBT) in the model diesel fuel. X-ray powder diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy and N2 physical adsorptiondesorption (BET/BJH) techniques were used to characterize these catalysts. According to our results, the best V/W-HMS catalyst exhibited high catalytic activity; it was capable of converting more than 95% of DBT in the model diesel fuel under the optimum reaction condition (0.05 g 1:4 of catalyst, T = 60 °C, t = 2 h). Doping of vanadium and tungsten led to a decrease in bandgap of the catalyst and an effective improvement in its catalytic performance. The catalytic activity remained unchanged even after 6 recycling processes. The reaction kinetics, mechanisms and bandgap energies of the catalysts were also investigated.