Investigation of MoO3/Clin and Mn2O3-MoO3/Clin nanocomposites’ performance for thiophene removing process by adsorption/catalytic oxidation method

Subject Areas :

Masoumeh Khatamain ¹ (inorganic chemistry, Faculty of Chemistry, University of Tabriz,Tabriz,Iran)
Zahra Chenari ² (Inorganic chemistry group, Faculty of chemistry.University of Tabriz)
Azin Yavari ³ (Inorganic Chemistry, Faculty of Chemistry, University of Tabriz)
Baharak Divband ⁴ (Inorganic Chemistry, Faculty of Chemistry, University of Tabriz)
Ziba Karimi ⁵ (The environmental officer of East Azarbaijan gas company, Tabriz, Iran)
Sasn Mohammadzadeh ⁶ (M. Sc. in Chemical Engineering, Responsible for leak detection, East Azarbaijan gas company, Tabriz, Iran)
Baharak Mardangahi ⁷ (Research and technology expert, East Azarbaijan gas company, Tabriz, Iran)
Sara Fazli-Shokouhi ⁸ (, Faculty of Materials Engineering, Sahand University of Technology, Tabriz, Iran)

Received: 2023-01-12 Accepted : 2023-04-24 Published : 2023-08-23

Keywords: Composite, MoO3, thiophene, Clinoptilolite,

Abstract :

In this research, the clinoptilolite (clin) ore from Mianeh in East Azarbaijan was used for the preparation of nanocomposites. MoO3 and Mn2O3-MoO3 oxides were loaded on acid-washed zeolites by impregnation method and MoO3/Clin and Mn2O3-MoO3/Clin composites with 18 wt. % of oxides were prepared. The prepared composites were characterized by XRD, FT-IR, FESEM, and EDX techniques. The presence of peaks related to the MoO3 and Mn2O3 oxides in the XRD pattern of composites and the existence of approximately spherical nanoparticles with sizes lower than 100 nm in their SEM images confirmed the preparation of composites. The catalytic activity of nanocomposites for removing thiophene was studied by the adsorption/oxidation method and the effect of solvent type, temperature, and oxidant on removal efficiency of thiophene was investigated. The results showed that Mn2O3-MoO3/Clin composite has better catalytic activity than MoO3/Clin in removing thiophene. Moreover, the increasing of temperature and applying NaClO as an oxidant improved the thiophene's degradation efficiency by this composite. The highest removal efficiency was obtained at 298 K in water-ethanol solvent by using oxidant for Mn2O3-MoO3/Clin composite which was about 66%. By changing the solvent from a polar solution (water and ethanol) to a nonpolar solvent (n-hexane) the removal efficiency decreased.