Oxidative Desulfurization of Fuel Oil at Room Temperature Catalyzed by Ordered Meso-macroporous HPW/SiO2

A serial of ordered meso-macroporous phosphotungstic acid (HPW) supported on SiO 2 nanocomposites were successfully prepared by a homogeneous precipitation method, using monodispersed polystyrene (PS) microspheres and cationic surfactant as structure directing agent. These nanocomposites were used as catalysts for oxidative desulfurization (ODS) of model fuel. The materials were characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), N 2 adsorption-desorption isothrem, X-ray diffraction (XRD), and Fourier transform infrared spectra (FTIR). The characterization results suggested that the as-prepared material possessed ordered meso-macroporous architectures with Keggin type phosphotungstic acid dispersed homogeneously in SiO 2 matrix. Under the selected reaction conditions, dibenzothiophene (DBT) in model fuel can be removed within 2 h at room temperature (30 °C). In addition, only 1.2% of efficiency lose than the fresh catalyst even after 5 cycles.