Electronic state tuning over Mo-doped W₁₈O₄₉ ultrathin nanowires with enhanced molecular oxygen activation for desulfurization

Developing catalyst with abundant surface active sites is the core issue to achieve efficient catalytic oxidative desulfurization performance. In this work, Mo doped W₁₈O₄₉ ultrathin nanowires is fabricated through solvothermal method to provide plentiful low coordinated metal atoms around oxygen vacancies to trigger oxidative desulfurization reaction. As a non-stoichiometric oxide, the discorded lattice microstructure in W₁₈O₄₉ endows the formation of O vacancies neighboring low-valence W atoms, while the ultrathin structure ensure the fully exposure of surface atoms. Moreover, the doped Mo atoms will tune the surface atomic structure and electronic state of W₁₈O₄₉ nanowires, leading to the higher oxygen vacancy concentration and strengthened interaction with target sulfide molecules. Benefiting from these features, the higher molecular oxygen activation capacity can be realized over Mo-W₁₈O₄₉ nanowires to yield more superoxide radicals, making it with greatly improved oxidative desulfurization performance. The optimized 2 %Mo-W₁₈O₄₉ catalyst shows nearly 100% removal of dibenzothiophene within 5 h and maintain the good cycle stability. This work supply new insights for the design of catalytic sites towards selective catalytic oxidative desulfurization.