Universal strategy engineering grain boundaries for catalytic oxidative desulfurization

The low-coordinated atoms such as edges, single atoms and vacancies have been widely determined as reactive sites for catalytic oxidative desulfurization. However, the grain boundaries (GB) as a favorable atomic configuration has been ignored. In this work, a universal strategy is proposed to engineer grain boundaries into oxides via facile two-step growth. Take the W18O49 nanowires as an example, the engineered GB can work as reactive sites to build stronger interfacial molecular interactions with dibenzothiophene (DBT) due to the low-coordinated W atoms with local electron-rich state, promoting the surface adsorption and activation performance towards DBT. Moreover, the molecular oxygen activation capacity is improved by GB to yield more superoxide radical relative to W18O49. Benefiting from these features, the GB-W(18)O(49 )deliver a greatly improved catalytic oxidative desulfurization behavior relative to W(18)O(49 )nanowires, in which 97.7% DBT can be removed by GB-W(18)O(49 )in 5 h but only 40.4% of W(18)O(49 )nanowires.

Automated summary

This study proposes a universal strategy to engineer grain boundaries into oxides via a facile two-step growth method, and applies grain boundaries to catalytic oxidative desulfurization reactions. Taking W18O49 nanowires as an example, the engineered grain boundaries can establish stronger interfacial molecular interactions with DBT, improving surface adsorption and activation performance, as well as enhancing molecular oxygen activation capacity.