Gold Nanoparticles as Catalyst in Dibenzothiophene Oxidation Reactions: Synthesis and Characterization

Gold clusters or nanoparticles, which exhibit characteristic electronic properties due to their size; could behave like an electron donor or acceptor depending on their chemical environment because of their shields orbitals arrangement. We performed wet chemical processes to achieve a gold catalyst NP’s using potassium tetrachloroaurate(III) hydrate as the gold source, sodium citrate and sodium borohydrate as reducing agents. The resulting gold-Np’s were applied in dibenzothiophene (DBT) model oxidation reactions using decalin as the solvent because of their importance in the removal of sulfurs in the crude oil. The products of the oxidation process were analyzed by XRD, HRSEM and FTIR characterization techniques. Also a computational work using Density Functional Theory Methods was performed in order to theoretically explain the actives sites and mechanism of the catalyst in the model reactions. For future work this catalyst will be used to perform real field reactions on crude oils.