Nanostructured MnO2 catalyst for oxidative desulfurization of diesel

Abstract

N1-MnO2 nanorod and porous N3-MnO2 nanosphere that were synthesized via template free hydrothermal route were characterized by a wide range of spectroscopic, microscopic and thermal analysis methods. And all these synthesized materials with commercial MnO2 as reference compound were tested for 4,6-DMDBT oxidation reaction. Various synthesis conditions were examined for preparing N1-MnO2 nanorod. It is found that hydrothermal time, temperature and pH are essential parameters for controlling crystallinity and particle size of synthesized samples.Porous N3-MnO2 nanosphere with relatively high surface area has also been synthesized by template free hydrothermal synthesis. This porous material is thermally stable up to 400 oC with crystallinity, morphology and surface area remained unchanged. Thus this porous N3-MnO2 has potential applications in catalysis either as catalyst by itself or as catalyst support. In this study, this porous N3-MnO2 was impregnated with Co, Ni and Mo and well characterized with microscopic and spectroscopic techniques.The synthesized N1-MnO2 nanorods and porous N3-MnO2 with or without loading of Co, Ni and Mo were tested for model diesel oxidation reaction (4,6-DMDBT as model sulfur compound, tetradecane as model hydrocarbon solvent) with commercial MnO2 as reference catalyst. It is found that supported Mo/N3-MnO2 is a more promising catalyst for diesel oxidation reaction.