Synthesis and characterization of new nano organic-inorganic hybrid (TBA)4PW11Fe@TiO2@PVA as a promising phase-transfer catalyst for oxidative desulfurization of real fuel

[Display omitted] •The catalyst (TBA)4PW11Fe@TiO2@PVA was synthesized via sol-gel method.•The catalytic activity of nanocomposite was tested on the ODS of real fuel.•(TBA)4PW11Fe@TiO2@PVA was shown be able to remove S-compounds of gasoline.•The nanocatalyst could be separated and recycled easily after five runs. In this work, an efficient oxidative desulfurization (ODS) process of real gas oil and model oils was introduced using (TBA)4PW11Fe@TiO2@PVA phase-transfer catalyst. The catalyst was successfully prepared by the composition of the quaternary ammonium salt of mono iron-substituted phosphotungstate (abbreviated as (TBA)4PW11Fe), titanium dioxide (TiO2), and polyvinyl alcohol (PVA). The nanocomposite obtained was characterized through FT-IR, UV–vis, XRD, and SEM techniques. The spectroscopic characterization revealed that the (TBA)4PW11Fe was immobilized on the surface of TiO2@PVA. The results of catalytic tests showed the outstanding ODS performance of (TBA)4PW11Fe@TiO2@PVA in the removal of thiophenic compounds. Under optimized reaction conditions, the ODS efficiencies of benzothiophene (BT), dibenzothiophene (DBT), 4-methyldibenzothiophene (4-MDBT), and 4,6-dimethyldibenzothiophene (4,6-DMDBT) reach 96, 99, 97, and 98%, respectively. The desulfurization system can be recycled five times with merely a slight decrease in activity.