Engineering oxygen-vacancy-rich plasmonic MoO3-x for synergistic photothermal oxidative desulfurization

A solvent-induced facet engineering to construct an O V -rich plasmonic MoO 3-x . • Abundant Mo 5+ /O V induce strong LSPR, driving efficient photothermal conversion. • O V sites enhance reactant adsorption and trap electrons to drive H 2 O 2 activation. • Light-driven photothermal catalysis enables 99.15% DBT conversion in just 10 min. • Natural sunlight delivers 99.56% conversion within 12 min. Increasingly stringent global environmental regulations make ultra-low-sulfur fuel production urgent, but the energy-intensive nature of conventional oxidative desulfurization requires alternative technologies under mild and sustainable conditions. Herein, we report a solvent-induced facet engineering strategy to construct a plasmonic MoO 3-x catalyst enriched with oxygen vacancy (O V ), which enables efficient solar-driven photothermal oxidative desulfurization (ODS) without external heating. By leveraging the reductive nature and facet growth modulation of methanol, a flower-like MoO 3-x assembled with nanosheet predominantly exposing the (021) facet is synthesized, promoting abundant Mo 5 + /O V active sites. O V serves a dual role: it endows strong localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) for efficient light harvesting and localized heating, while functioning as active centers for reactant adsorption/activation and as electron traps to facilitate H 2 O 2 decomposition into •OH radicals. Under light excitation, the optimized catalyst achieves efficient light-driven heating (70 °C) and delivers 99.15% dibenzothiophene (DBT) conversion within 10 min, with a rate constant 73.8 times higher than that of conventional MoO 3 . This excellent performance is also achieved under natural sunlight (99.56% conversion within 12 min), demonstrating its practical feasibility. This work establishes a defect-engineering paradigm for plasmonic catalysts toward solar energy utilization in sustainable fuel purification. Download: Download high-res image (283KB) Download: Download full-size image A solvent-induced facet engineering strategy was employed to synthesize a plasmonic MoO 3-x nanosheets with predominantly exposed (021) facets, generating abundant Mo 5+ /O V active sites. O V serves a dual role: inducing strong LSPR for light harvesting and localized heating, while functioning as active centers for reactant adsorption/activation and electron traps to facilitate H 2 O 2 decomposition into •OH radicals. Under light excitation, the catalyst achieves 99.15% DBT conversion within 10 min (rate constant 73.8 times higher than MoO 3 ). This excellent performance is also achieved under natural sunlight (99.56% conversion within 12 min), demonstrating its practical feasibility.