Study of the reaction kinetics of organosulfur compounds oxidation by atomic clusters

L.G. GIOVANETTI; J.M. DEVIDA; J. BAVA; M. MIZRAHI; D. BUCETA; M. A. LOPEZ-QUINTELA; F.G. REQUEJO

Congreso; 29th Annual Users? Meeting of LNLS; 2019

CNPEM

The key factor in catalysis is to find, for each reaction, materials with high activity, selectivity and stability. However, it?s difficult to find catalysts that completely fulfill these three requirements. AQCs with a few atoms (less than ≈50 atoms) represent a novel state of matter, with properties completely different from nanoparticles (NP), and strictly dependent on the number of atoms. Contrary to what would be expected, AQCs possess a surprising high chemical and thermalstability, superior to the bulk material, as reported by the Buceta Fernández et al. Recent results obtained shows that Ag5 AQCs display high catalytic activities for the fully aerobic oxidation of different types of sulfur species to sulfates at room temperature. This occurs even for the most complicated aromatic thiols to be oxidized in the industrial field, such as asphaltenes.