Mecanismo da reação de hidrodessulfurização do Tiofeno empregando o Método PM6

Abstract

Air pollution is of great concern to all of us, and among the main causes are the gases emitted from fossil fuels burning. Therefore, the search for clean technologies is of prime importance nowadays. Thus, in the present work the reaction mechanism for the hydrodesulfurization is investigated. Such reaction is widely used in oil refinery, where new materials, with lowest cost and greater range of application, are searched for. This reaction causes the reduction of hydrocarbons containing sulfur-based functional groups, such as thiols, sulfides and thiophenes, releases hydrogen sulfide, and is catalyzed by molybdenum sulfides or oxides. Since the absorption of SOx compounds is harmful to health and environment, the levels of these types of compounds should be considerably reduced, according to the Kyoto Protocol and the current legislation. In the present study, the hydrodesulfurization reaction involving thiophene is investigated through the use of Quantum Chemical Methods. A mechanism is proposed, using the MoO3, NiMoO4 and CrMoO4 compounds as catalysts. Besides, the effects of Mo6+, Ni2+ and Cr2+ ions are analyzed and also, a mechanism is proposed, considering Thermodynamic and Kinetic Chemistry aspects, once they are not completely established in literature. Geometry optimization and harmonic frequency calculations are performed using the PM6 method, implemented in MOPAC2007. The catalysts structures are built from experimental data provided by the Inorganic Crystal Structure Database. Reaction enthalpies, entropies, Gibbs free energies, as well as activation and reaction energies are computed. Some results of this work comprehend values referring to absortion energies for the catalysts MoO3, MoO3:Ni e MoO3:Cr, corresponding to -117.23, -115.26 and -407.14 kJ mol-1, respectively, originating the following stability order: Cr > Mo > Ni.