Facile synthesis of MoO3 nanodots self-assembled into hollow mesoporous silica: Enhancing efficient oxidative desulfurization and investigating reaction mechanism

A green and environmentally friendly route uses air to fabricate the hollow structured nanocomposites, which successfully self-assembled the uniform MoO3 nanodots (denote as MoO3 NDs, about 1.8 nm) into the mesoporous SiO2 hollow nanosphere (denote as MoO3/SiO2 HN) in a homogeneous solution. The new type of NDs-supported nanocomposite is fully characterized with different techniques (XPS, NH3-TPD, EPR, EIS and UV-vis). The result is that the small size of NDs enhances the number of active sites exposed on the surface of the carrier or mesopomus channels, and the novel catalyst of MoO3/SiO2 HN exhibits rapid electron transfer capabilities and abundant O-vacancies. Besides, the possible mechanism of desulfurization reaction has also been studied in detail. It is found that the O-vacancy of the catalyst facilitates the adsorption of H2O2 and the rapid electron transfer of NDs promotes decomposition of H2O2 to produce more active oxygen (O-), thereby improving the catalytic oxidation desulfurization performance.

Automated summary

A novel NDs-supported MoO3/SiO2 HN nanocomposite with efficient catalytic oxidation desulfurization performance has been successfully fabricated through a green and environmentally friendly route, showing great potential for practical applications as a new type of nanocatalyst.