V2CTx MXene: A Promising Catalyst for Low-Temperature Aerobic Oxidative Desulfurization.

Aerobic oxidative desulfurization (AODS) promises a sustainable alternative desulfurization process for fuel, yet is still limited by high temperature and low efficiency for oxygen activation. Here we report that the monolayer two-dimensional vanadium carbide (V₂CT_x) MXene can emerge as a robust and stable catalyst for the oxidation of thiophenic compounds with oxygen in air as an oxidant. The catalyst performs a higher mass specific activity over the state-of-art vanadium oxides, activates the reaction at 70 °C, and achieves effective conversion of various sulfides under mild condition. Coupling characterizations with DFT calculations, we reveal that the abundant low valence V species accompanied anion vacancies on the surface of MXene have excellent oxygen activation capacity, which well explains its outstanding catalytic performance at low temperature. Moreover, the catalyst maintains its activity after 6 cycles of reuse, and is expected to act as a sustainable, efficient and stable AODS catalyst. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]