Experimental and theoretical research on catalytic synthesis of thiophene from furan and H2S

Abstract

The yield of thiophene from furan and H2S was investigated using selected catalyst carriers (alumina, active carbon and silica gel) and active ingredients (silicotungstic, phosphomolybdic and phosphotungstic acids) to obtain the optimized synthesis parameters. The experimental results indicated that the yield of thiophene reached a maximum when the supported catalyst was alumina and the active ingredient was phosphotungstic acid. Furthermore, the reaction mechanism of the optimized reactive system was studied by the density functional theory (DFT) method. The calculated energy profile indicated that there were four transition states in the reaction process.