Cerium salt-assisted defect engineering in solvent-free-synthesized UiO-66(Zr) for enhanced oxidative desulfurization of model oils

Journal:Materials Today Chemistry

Key Words:Metal-organic framework Defect engineering Grinding method Oxidative desulfurization

Abstract:The development of efficient oxidative desulfurization (ODS) catalysts is of critical practical significance for obtaining clean fuel energy. UiO-66(Zr), as a significant member of Zr-MOFs, has garnered extensive attention due to its advantages such as good porosity and excellent stability. The reasonable design of defective UiO-66(Zr) just compensates for the dearth of accessible active sites of the original MOFs. In this study, we adopt a solventfree green preparation strategy to obtain defective UiO-66(Zr), where a small amount of CeCl3⋅7H2O is added and the unique advantage of MOFs with abundant ligand defects plays a key role in improving ODS performance. The optimal sample can completely eliminate 1000 ppm DBT at 50 ◦C for 6 min, with a high turnover frequency (12.33 h�� 1) and significant catalytic activity (35.33 mmol g�� 1 h�� 1), and the catalyst can maintain high activity for multiple cycles. The excellent properties may be attributed to the high melting point of CeCl3⋅7H2O, which leads to the presence of dangling COOH and exposed Lewis Zr sites. Experimental findings demonstrate that the exposed Zr site is capable of generating the active species ⋅O2�� with H2O2, which effectively eliminates thiophene sulfur compounds. In brief, this work enriches the understanding of solvent-free methods for the synthesis of defective UiO-66(Zr) and provides an effective strategy for ODS catalyst development.

Co-author:Liang Chu,Zhaokun Wang,Xinyu Zhao,Zhiyong Zhu

First Author:Teng Zhao

Indexed by:Journal paper

Correspondence Author:Mu Yang,Ge Wang

Volume:47,

Page Number:102803

Translation or Not:no

Date of Publication:2025-06-07