Fe3O4-encapsulated ZIF-8 as a Novel Catalyst for Oxidative Desulfurization of a Model Fuel

In this paper, a novel magnetic catalyst is produced through versatile procedure by coating of Zeolitic Imidazolate Framework-8 (ZIF-8) over Fe₃O₄ particles to achieve Fe3O4-encapsulated ZIF-8 catalyst. The successful synthesis of the catalyst was also confirmed by various methods such as FT-IR and XRD. Afterward, the produced catalyst was employed for removal of sulfur compounds from a model fuel via oxidative desulfurization process. In particular, Fe3O4-encapsulated ZIF-8 showed high catalytic activity for dibenzothiophene (DBT) removal from model fuels where a 90% conversion of process was gained after 11 h only with applying 0.1 g catalyst and at the ratio of O/S = 1 at 80 °C. Furthermore, the effect of temperature and reaction time on the DBT removal efficiency is studied.