Surface Etched Mixed Matrix Membrane for Desulfurization of Model Diesel Oil

Abstract

Fuel counts in basic necessity of modern life. However, fuel consumption has been turned into severe danger to the environment as well as human life due to the presence of sulfur components in fuel. Therefore, it has become essentially important to achieve ultra-low sulfur fuel. For this purpose, desulfurization has been vastly undergoing by using various techniques in recent decades. Polyoxometalates (POMs) are polyatomic anions comprising transition metal oxyanions associated with bridged oxygen atoms resulting in closed three-dimensional assemblies. POMs and their hybrid materials (such as POM-based porphyrin and POM based metal-organic frameworks (MOFs)), have been mostly reported in multidisciplinary research fields as brilliant candidates due to their characteristics properties. Specifically, hybrids of POM and porphyrin (~ POM@Porphyrin = POMOF) are outstanding materials for intended applications which being inorganic filler further incorporate in mixed matrix membranes (MMMs). MMMs generally fabricated through incorporation of inorganic fillers in polymeric matrix, have achieved great attention in recent research progress due to multiple applications in gas storage, catalysis, sensing, wastewater treatment, and biomedicine. The main objective of the current study is to use POMOF as a catalyst in desulfurization. Therefore, three POMOFs were fabricated by varying ratios (1:1, 2:1, 3:1) of cationic and anionic species. Characterization analyses such as UV/Vis, FTIR, and TGA showed successful synthesis of these POMOFs. The efficiency of POMOFs followed an order as 3 (95.5%)> 2 (85.5%)> 1 (70.3%). Among these three POMOFs, 3 exhibited excellent catalytic property in desulfurization. Furthermore, the desulfurization process could be recycled for ten times without a significant decrease in catalytic efficiency. Interestingly, POMOFs successfully accomplished desulfurization of model diesel oil and showed excellent renewability. To the best of our knowledge, such kind of POMOFs with special surroundings and bi-functional active sites are not reported.