Boron Nitride Mesoporous Nanowires with Doped Oxygen Atoms for the Remarkable Adsorption Desulfurization Performance from Fuels

Abstract

Novel BN mesoporous nanowire materials with doped oxygen atoms have been controlled and prepared successfully. Multiple techniques have been employed to determine the structure, morphology, surface feature, defects, and electronic structure. It was the first time that a controlled preparation of this unique structure was applied to adsorptive desulfurization. The obtained BN mesoporous nanowires displayed outstanding adsorptive desulfurization activity for DBT (65.4 mg S g–1 adsorbent according to the Langmuir isotherm model), which was much higher than that of commercial BN and graphene-like BN. At the same time, the BN mesoporous nanowires displayed good stability and excellent adsorption performance for the 4,6-DMDBT (33.2 mg S g–1 adsorbent). The significant enhancement of adsorption desulfurization performance of BN mesoporous nanowires was ascribed to the large number of low coordinated atoms along the nanowire surface and mesopores, which could cause an interaction with DBT, and the doped oxygen atoms further strengthen the interaction.