Encapsulation of Phosphotungstic Acid into Metal–Organic Frameworks with Tunable Window Sizes: Screening of PTA@MOF Catalysts for Efficient Oxidative Desulfurization

Clean fuels with extremely low sulfur content are highly desirable due to environmental concerns. Herein, three water-stable and eco-friendly metal–organic frameworks with tunable window diameters, denoted as MOF-808X, have been employed as PTA solid supports. An array of PTA@MOF-808X composites were facilely synthesized via the encapsulation strategy. With tunable window sizes and adjustable PTA loading amounts, the obtained PTA@MOF-808X composites were screened for catalytic oxidative desulfurization (ODS) with H2O2 serving as oxidant. The experiments found that 42%PTA@MOF-808A had the highest catalytic ODS activity and could completely remove dibenzothiophene (DBT) in a model fuel with an initial sulfur content of 1000 ppm within 30 min, which falls far below the acceptable limits for fuel standards (10 ppm). Further investigations revealed that this high catalytic activity could be attributed to the cooperative catalysis of metal clusters in the host framework and the guest PTA molecules. Moreover, 42%PTA@MOF-808A could be facilely recovered and reused for at least five runs without loss of catalytic activity. Having a combination of eco-sustainability, high stability, high catalytic activity, and good recyclability, 42%PTA@MOF-808A therefore represents a new benchmark material for catalytic ODS and provides a new perspective for ultradeep desulfurization