New insights into oxygen defects, Lewis acidity and catalytic activity of vanadia hybrid nanomaterials

Structural defects in both MCM-41 (Mobil Composition of Matter No. 41) framework and V2O5 nanocrystals and surface acid sites of the V2O5/MCM-41 hybrid nanomaterials were quantitatively determined. Oxygen defects were found to be related to Lewis acid sites in the materials. In the oxidative desulfurization of a model diesel, dibenzothiophene conversion was almost proportional to the number of Lewis acidity and generally correlated with the oxygen defects concentration in V2O5. This work confirmed that increasing surface Lewis acidity and oxygen defect concentration is an effective route to improve the catalytic activity in the oxidation of sulfur compounds. (C) 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.