Synthesis, characterization and catalytic activity of rGO supported novel hybrid materials for green fuel production

Abstract

In the present study, reduced graphene oxide metal composites were synthesized using hydrothermal method for the purpose of green and efficient oxidative desulfurization for the removal of Sulfur content from fuel. The physiochemical characterization of amalgamated material was confirmed by powdered X-ray diffraction (P-XRD), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), Scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX) and Thermogravimetric analysis (TGA). The XRD results clearly show that metals hybrids have been successfully doped over the surface of rGO having 15.61 nm, 19.03 nm, 27.98 nm, 28.89 nm and 24.37 nm crystallite size for NiO, rGO, ZnNiO@rGO, CuNiO@rGO and CoNiO@rGO respectively. Novel catalysts were checked against both model fuel (500 ppm DBT) and actual fuel (kerosene also called as paraffin oil and petro-diesel) by radical initiator mechanism of ODS. Excellent ODS activity was examined using 0.1g catalyst, 1ml H2O2, 100 ppm DBT at 40°C for 180 min. The dependence of efficiency rate with various factors of time, DBT concentration, amount of catalyst and oxidant and temperature was also studied. The whole mechanism follows pseudo first order reaction with a minimum requirement of energy of 1.491 kJ/mol to start a reaction for prepared materials. Novel catalysts show remarkable reusability up to 5 times that subsidizes to the economic permanency of reaction system.