Study of oxidative desulfurization of thiophene by phase transfer catalysis

As the oxidative desulfurization by phase transfer catalysis tallies with the principle of Starks, the cycling model of oxidative desulfurization of thiophene by phase transfer catalysis was developed. The essencial processe was the transportation of active component from water phase to organic phase. The extraction constant of Q(+), nucleophilicity of X-, and r(Q(+)) were calculated to investigate the process of oxidative desulfurization of thiophene. When thiophene was oxidized by peroxyformic acid with TBAB as the phase transfer catalyst, the desulfurization rate was up to 86.36%. From the kinetics study, it was shown that the reaction was first-order reaction.