6 Silicotungstic acid immobilized on lamellar hexagonal boron nitride for oxidative desulfurization of fuel components

Heteropoly acids have attracted increasing attentions in oxidative desulfurization (ODS) field, but the solubility and low surface area hindered their applications. Moreover, bulk silicotungstic acid (HSiW) was less researched, owing to its relative lower activity. Herein, a layered-structure hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN) was employed for dispersion of HSiW by impregnation method. Interestingly, the immobilization process not only gave rise to the promising dispersion, but also produced valence alternation of tungsten species in HSiW. Detailed experiments found that both the factors led to a high catalytic activity in ODS, resulting in a 100% of sulfur removal and 9 times recycling performance. Additionally, the current designed ODS system showed excellent resistibility to interference substrates. Furthermore, the catalytic process and oxidizing product were further studied by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS).