Effect of charge-transfer complex between gasoline components/C60 on desulphurization properties of C60-filled ethyl cellulose hybrid membranes

Ethyl cellulose (EC)/fullerene C60 hybrid membranes were prepared for sulfur removal from gasoline. The effect of adding C60 on desulfurization mechanism was investigated by the study of mass transfer behaviors of model gasoline components through membranes with different C60 contents. The results showed that the transport mode of model gasoline components in membranes tended to Fickian diffusion. The increasing C60 content did not change the transport mode of gasoline components in hybrid membranes, but severely increased the EC/C60–thiophene interaction. Meanwhile, sorption and diffusion coefficients of thiophene, toluene, and cyclohexene increased with the increasing C60 content, leading to the increase of the overall permeation coefficient of all the components, predicting that sulfur enrichment factor and permeation flux increased. The charge-transfer complex interaction between different gasoline components and fullerene C60 was studied, and the change regularity of permeation flux and sulfur enrichment factor corresponded to the desulfurization mechanism that concluded on dynamic sorption curves. These were verified by pervaporation experimental results of membranes with different C60 contents. In the condition of EC:C60=1:0.007 (mass ratio), higher sulfur enrichment factor (5.03) and permeation flux (2.73 kg/m2 h) were obtained compared to the pure EC membrane (3.75, 0.70 kg/m2 h), which further proved that the addition of C60 could be helpful for the removal of sulfur from gasoline effectively.