Abstract
The low-coordinated atoms such as edges, single atoms and vacancies have been widely determined as reactive sites for catalytic oxidative desulfurization. However, the grain boundaries (GB) as a favorable atomic configuration has been ignored. In this work, a universal strategy is proposed to engineer grain boundaries into oxides via facile two-step growth. Take the W_(18)O_(49) nanowires as an example, the engineered GB can work as reactive sites to build stronger interfacial molecular interactions with dibenzothiophene (DBT) due to the low-coordinated W atoms with local electron-rich state, promoting the surface adsorption and activation performance towards DBT. Moreover, the molecular oxygen activation capacity is improved by GB to yield more superoxide radical relative to W_(18)O_(49). Benefiting from these features, the GB-W_(18)O_(49) deliver a greatly improved catalytic oxidative desulfurization behavior relative to W_(18)O_(49) nanowires, in which 97.7% DBT can be removed by GB-W_(18)O_(49) in 5 h but only 40.4% of W_(18)O_(49) nanowires.
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