Directional Self-Assembly of Exfoliated Layered Europium Hydroxide Nanosheets and Na9EuW10O36•32H2O for Application in Desulfurization

The directional self-assembly of exfoliated layered europium hydroxide (LEuH) nanosheets and europium-containing heteropolytungstate anions has been achieved by mixing an LEuH colloidal solution and a Na9EuW10O36 center dot 32H(2)O (EuW10) solution at room temperature leading to the formation of a new inorganic/inorganic hybrid material, Eu-2(OH)(5)(EuW10O36)0.11 center dot 5.5H(2)O (LEuH-EuW10). The use of LEuH-EuW10 in extractive catalytic oxidative desulfurization (ECODS) showed that highly efficient and selective deep desulfurization can be achieved in only 15 min under mild conditions. A maximum turnover number (TON) of around 1600 has been achieved. In addition, the catalyst can be recycled and reused at least 10 times with only a slight loss of catalytic efficiency.