Thiophene Desulfurization: Effects of Dendritic Silica and Peg as Surface Modifier on Zno Photocatalyst

Abstract

This work focused on the desulfurization of thiophene using a photocatalyst comprising zinc oxide (ZnO) and fibrous silica nanospheres (KCC-1) to exploit the photocatalytic process. Six photocatalyst samples (commercial ZnO, KCC-1, ZnO/1.5KCC-1, ZnO/2.0KCC-1, ZnO/2.5KCC-1 and ZnO/PEG) were characterized using field-emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM), Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy and X-ray diffractometry (XRD). It was found that the properties of ZnO were altered with the incorporation of KCC-1 to enhance the efficiency of thiophene desulfurization. Desulfurization performances were investigated using three parameters, which were initial pH, initial thiophene concentration and photocatalyst loading. Each of the parameters was validated using thiophene desulfurization percentage and turbidity removal percentage. This work discovered that ZnO/2.0KCC-1 was the optimum photocatalyst with 83% thiophene desulfurization. No clear trend was observed for turbidity removal percentage, yet the ZnO/KCC-1 photocatalyst was able to reduce turbidity significantly. The pH of the permeate rose from neutral to the alkaline range due to the hydroxyl radicals (•OH) produced during the desulfurization process.

Keywords: Desulfurization, Photocatalysis, thiophene, ZnO, KCC-1, photocatalyst