Reduced graphene oxide enhanced emulsification for one-pot synthesis of high-density jet fuel

Synthesis of jet fuel with high density, good low-temperature property and high thermal stability is significant to aerospace industry. Here, a great-performance jet fuel blending including bi- and tri-cyclic hydrocarbons (C10 ~ C16) is synthesized with high yield through reduced graphene oxide (rGO) assisted H 2 SO 4 catalytic one-pot reaction of cyclopentanol and methylcyclopentane. The reaction occurs through a consecutive way of dehydration, alkylation, rearrangement and hydrogen transfer. Carbon-based materials especially rGO are used as additive to increase the carbon yield by promoting the emulsification of reactants in sulfuric acid. Promoted emulsification improves the alkylation of cyclopentanol with methylcyclopentane and makes the hydrogen transfer easier, which highly increases the conversion of methylcyclopentane (54.9%), the carbon yield (83.2%) and the selectivity (97.3%) of products. Finally, a jet-fuel-ranged blending with overall yield of 71.8% is obtained by distillation, which shows high density of 0.90 g/mL, low freezing point of ＜-72 °C and a high oxidation onset temperature of 195.0 °C. This work provides a simple, efficient and low-cost way to synthesize high performance jet fuel from biomass.