Toward cleaner fuels: synergistic effects of carbon-doped and morphology of mesoporous TiO2 on enhanced photocatalytic performance in desulfurization reaction

Nowadays, the emission of pollutants into the environment is a considerable concern for air quality and public health. One of the significant sources of environmental contaminants is sulfur compounds emitted from fossil fuels. The present study investigated oxidative desulfurization of model and real fuel by utilizing mesoporous carbon-doped TiO2 as an efficient catalyst. Moreover, for the sulfur removal from model fuel under visible illumination, calcination conditions were adjusted in such a way that in the formation of the largest surface area, the bandgap energy of mesoporous TiO2 was also reduced by carbon doping in the catalyst structure. Optimization of desulfurization reaction conditions was also carried out, and a comparison of the obtained results showed that this catalyst has higher performance under UV-vis light. Under optimum reaction conditions maximum of 94.5%, sulfur removal is obtained by UV-vis irradiation.