Oxidative Desulfurization of Dibenzothiophene Using Cobalt (II) Complexes with Substituted Salen-Type Ligands as Catalysts in Model Fuel Oil

Three cobalt(II)-salen complexes (CoL1, CoL2 and CoL3) were synthesized via the reaction of the three tetradentate ligands as N,N′-ethylenebis(salicylimine) L1, N,N′-ethylenebis(3-tert-butylsalicylimine) L2 and N,N′-ethylenebis(3,5-di-tert-butylsalicylimine) L3, with a stoichiometric amount of cobalt(II) acetate tetrahydrate, respectively. All the three complexes were studied as oxidative desulfurization catalyst on dibenzothiophene taken in model fuel oil n-dodecane. The acetonitrile used as an extracting solvent and H2O2 as an oxidant. Comparatively CoL3 proved to be the best catalyst which showed the 76% DBT removal at the optimized conditions. The nth-order kinetic model is the best way to represent oxidation kinetics of complexes. This cobalt(II) Schiffs base complexes were studied as catalyst for oxidative desulfurization of dibenzothiphene (DBT) taken as model sulphur compounds in fuel model oil (n-dodecane) using H2O2 as oxidant and acetonitrile as extracting solvent for DBT sulfone in a batch experiment.