Model Fuel Oxidation in the Presence of Molybdenum-Containing Catalysts Based on SBA-15 with Hydrophobic Properties

Argam V Akopyan; Polina D Polikarpova; Nina V Arzyaeva; Alexander V Anisimov; Olga V Maslova; Olga V Senko; Elena N Efremenko

doi:10.1021/acsomega.1c03267

Model Fuel Oxidation in the Presence of Molybdenum-Containing Catalysts Based on SBA-15 with Hydrophobic Properties

ACS Omega. 2021 Oct 7;6(41):26932-26941. doi: 10.1021/acsomega.1c03267. eCollection 2021 Oct 19.

Authors

Argam V Akopyan¹, Polina D Polikarpova¹, Nina V Arzyaeva¹, Alexander V Anisimov¹, Olga V Maslova¹, Olga V Senko^{1

2}, Elena N Efremenko^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ Faculty of Chemistry, Lomonosov Moscow State University, 1-3 Leninskiye Gory, Moscow 119991, Russia.
² Emanuel Institute of Biochemical Physics, Russian Academy of Sciences, Kosygina st., 4, Moscow 119334, Russia.

Abstract

We have studied for the first time the role of hydrophobicity of the mesoporous silicate SBA-15 on the activity and the service life of a catalyst in the peroxide oxidation of sulfur-containing compounds. Immobilization of the molybdate anion on the SBA-15 support via ionic bonding with triethylammonium groups allows us not only to decrease the reaction temperature to a relatively low value of 60 °C without a drop in the dibenzothiophene conversion degree but also to increase the service life of the catalyst to many times that of the known analogs. The support and catalyst structures were investigated by low-temperature nitrogen adsorption/desorption, Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy, X-ray fluorescence analysis, and transmission electron microscopy. Immobilization of the molybdate anion on the SBA-15 support, modified with ammonium species, prevents the leaching of active sites. However, only alkyl-substituted ammonium species minimize DBT sulfone adsorption, which significantly increases the catalyst's service life. The synthesized catalyst Mo/Et₃N-SBA-15 with hydrophobic properties is not sensitive to the initial sulfur content and hydrogen peroxide amount and retains its activity for at least six cycles of oxidation without regeneration. These catalysts can be efficiently used for clean fuel production.