Binary molten salts mediated defect engineering on hexagonal boron nitride catalyst with long-term stability for aerobic oxidative desulfurization

Molten salts mediation is a potential strategy for the development of functional materials. Herein, a controllable defect engineering on the hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN) was approached via the binary molten salts (BMS) mediated strategy. The as-synthesized h-BN catalyst had a high crystalline structure with adequate nitrogenterminated defects, which can work as the reactive sites for the adsorption and activation of molecular oxygen in the aerobic oxidative desulfurization of fuel. These reactive sites on the high crystalline h-BN catalyst showed outstanding stability with only a 1% loss of activity after continuous operation for 120 h. Moreover, the induced number of defects in the high-crystalline h-BN varied with the melting point of BMS, which could be simply modulated by adjusting its binary composition. Thus, via adjusting the melting temperature of BMS close to the eutectic point, a defective high-crystalline h-BN was optimized as the high-performance catalyst, achieving 96% of sulfur conversion in the aerobic oxidation of refractory aromatic sulfur compounds, and remaining active after 15 times of the recycling experiment. This work provides a new approach for the controllable synthesis of high-performance h-BN in the mediation of molten salts.

Automated summary

The controllable defect engineering of h-BN catalyst with adequate nitrogenterminated defects via binary molten salt mediation strategy resulted in outstanding stability and high performance in the aerobic oxidative desulfurization of fuel. Adjusting the melting temperature of binary molten salts allowed for the optimization of high-crystalline h-BN as a high-performance catalyst, achieving excellent sulfur conversion and remaining active after multiple recycling experiments. This work provides a new approach for the synthesis of high-performance h-BN through molten salt mediation.