Synthesis of Ag-AgBr/Al-MCM-41 nanocomposite and its application in photocatalytic oxidative desulfurization of dibenzothiophene

A series of Ag-AgBr/Al-MCM-41 nanocomposites were synthesized by dispersion of Ag-AgBr on mesoporous silica Al-MCM-41 obtained from natural bentonite. The synthesized Ag-AgBr/Al-MCM-41 composites with Ag nanoparticles growing on the surface of Al-MCM-41 were used for photocatalytic oxidative desulfurization of dibenzothiophene. The physical properties of Ag-AgBr/Al-MCM-41 were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), Ultraviolet-visible diffuse reflection spectroscopy (UV-Vis DRS), photoluminescence (PL) emission spectra, and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). The photocatalytic activity results showed that in the presence of 40% Ag-AgBr/Al-MCM-41 photocatalyst the oxidative desulfurization of dibenzothiophene reached the maximum efficiency at 99.22% and the photocatalytic activity still keeps high level after four cycles. (C) 2018 The Society of Powder Technology Japan. Published by Elsevier B.V. and The Society of Powder Technology Japan. All rights reserved.