Organic and Inorganic Chemistry

Sulfur abstraction reactions are important reactions in heterogeneous catalysis. Their main function is to remove sulfur from petroleum to boost energy value of oil based fuels and to prevent fouling of the catalysts used for catalytic converters in diesel. Catalysis of such sulfur removal is commonly achieved through use of heterogenous catalysis where molybdenum based catalysts with sulfur moieties make up the catalytically active sites. We synthesized a series of molybdenum compounds with terminal disulfide ligand and studied the heterogeneous catalytic abilities of these compounds in a sulfur abstraction reaction of propylene sulfide, with respect to the compound structure. The compounds were all catalytically active although sluggish. The sluggish behavior was explained by interesting details that were revealed by a combination of the solid state properties and a proposed catalytic cycle.