Deep oxidative desulfurization of real fuels by a new nanocomposite based on mono Cd(II)‐substituted Keggin‐type silicotungstate, cobalt ferrite and polyaniline as an efficient nanocatalyst

Abstract To obtain clean fuel, synthesis and characterization of a novel nanocomposite based on mono Cd II ‐substituted silicotungstate (K 3 SiW 11 CdO 39 ), cobalt ferrite (CoFe 2 O 4 ), and polyaniline (PAN) was presented for the first time. K 3 SiW 11 CdO 39 @CoFe 2 O 4 @PAN was identified by FT‐IR, XRD, SEM, and EDX techniques. The outcomes of the characterizations have shown that K 3 SiW 11 CdO 39 and CoFe 2 O 4 are uniformly dispersed on the PAN surface. The K 3 SiW 11 CdO 39 @CoFe 2 O 4 @PAN was employed as a heterogeneous catalyst in the extractive coupled oxidative desulfurization (ECOD) of both real gasoline and dibenzothiophene (DBT) as a thiophenic model fuel. Under relatively mild reaction conditions, the catalytic performance of the as‐prepared nanocatalyst in the ECOD procedure was studied by incorporating acetic acid/hydrogen proxied as an oxidant system at a volume ratio of 1:2. Based on the results, the K 3 SiW 11 CdO 39 @CoFe 2 O 4 @PAN nanocatalyst demonstrated effectiveness of up to 95% with 0.1 g at 35°C under optimal operating conditions in the ECOD process. Additionally, the synthesized nanocatalyst exhibited the ability to undergo five consecutive runs in the ECOD process without any discernible reduction in its activity.