Oxidative desulfurization of dibenzothiophene over V-Mo co-doped akaganeite

In this paper, V-Mo co-doped akaganeite (β-FeOOH) was prepared by one-pot hydrothermal method and the oxidative desulfurization (ODS) of dibenzothiophene over the catalyst was carefully investigated. 0.07 g (ca. 0.35 wt% of model oil) of catalyst induced 100 % of DBT removal in 60 min with a O/S of 20:1 under 60 °C for the model oils with any of the sulfur contents, 100 ppm, 500 ppm, or 1000 ppm. Moreover, the DBT removal after recycling 4 times is still 100 % and it only declines to 98.04 % in the fifth cycle, which indicates that the catalyst has a good stability and recycling performance. Doping V species in Mo doped β-FeOOH not only initiates a micro-variation in catalyst structure and the resultant more active •OH species but also forms a more stable structure of the catalyst, enabling the catalyst to exhibit a higher ODS reaction rate and a better reusability. The GC-MS analyses demonstrated that the DBT was converted to DBTO 2 by two steps: (1) DBT→ DBTO; (2) DBTO→ DBTO 2 , and the former is the rate-limiting step.