Boric acid-based ternary deep eutectic solvent for extraction and oxidative desulfurization of diesel fuel

Wei Jiang, Hao Jia, Hongping Li, Linhua Zhu, Runming Tao, Wenshuai Zhu, Huaming Li, Sheng Dai

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167 Scopus citations

Abstract

Deep eutectic solvents (DESs) have been intensively investigated as promising "green" solvents for a range of industrial processes, although most research continues to be focused on binary DESs. This paper reports on a class of ternary DESs formed by choline chloride (ChCl), polyethylene glycol (PEG), and boric acid (BA) that may be viewed as a new system for extraction and oxidative desulfurization (ODS) of diesel fuel. Compared with organic acid-based DESs, ternary DESs offer advantages including low volatility, low toxicity, and high activity. After tuning the molar ratio of the three compositions, sulfur removal reached 99.2% in 2 h at 60 °C when the molar ratio of H2O2 to dibenzothiophene was 6. The binary DESs, ChCl/PEG and ChCl/BA, showed unsatisfactory extraction and oxidation efficiency. The reaction mechanism identified through experimental and theoretical methods showed that superoxide radical may be the main active oxygen species, and BA-based peroxides may also play an important role. The results of this study may expand the use of BA and supply a new class of DESs for ODS and other possible applications.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)3074-3080
Number of pages7
JournalGreen Chemistry
Volume21
Issue number11
DOIs
StatePublished - 2019

Funding

This work was financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 21506080, 21808092, 21766007, and 21722604), Natural Science Foundation of Jiangsu Province (No. BK20150485), A Project Funded by the Priority Academic Program Development of Jiangsu Higher Education Institutions. S. D. was supported by the Division of Chemical Sciences, Geosciences, and Biosciences, Office of Basic Energy Sciences, U.S. Department of Energy.

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