Highly efficient oxidative desulfurization of dibenzothiophene using Ni modified MoO3 catalyst

Ni modified MoO 3 (Ni-MoO 3 ) had been synthesized by a facile one-step hydrothermal technique and was used for oxidative desulfurization (ODS) of dibenzothiophene (DBT) in the decalin/acetonitrile biphasic system with H 2 O 2 as oxidant, the effect of different operating conditions was investigated. Under the optimal reaction condition, Ni-MoO 3 catalyst showed excellent ODS performance toward DBT, the highest sulfur removal efficiency can be up to 99.8% and sulfur content was wiped out from 5000 to 10 ppm, which is more effective than the recent reported MoO 3 -based catalysts. The reaction kinetics obeyed the pseudo-first-order equation with an apparent rate constant of 0.076 min −1 , which is twice that of pure MoO 3 (0.035 min −1 ). The ODS mechanism of DBT with Ni-MoO 3 was explored by combining radical scavenger, FT-IR experiments and theoretical analysis, proving that surface oxygen vacancies and Lewis acid sites play important roles in the high-efficiency ODS reaction with Ni-MoO 3 catalyst.