Catalyst, Emulsion Stabilizer, and Adsorbent: Three Roles In One for Synergistically Enhancing Interfacial Catalytic Oxidative Desulfurization.

A Pickering emulsion catalytic system was proposed to reduce the transfer limitation between two immiscible reactant phases for enhancing the kinetics of heterogenetic oxidative desulfurization (ODS). By loading phosphotungstic acid (HPW) nanoparticles on a novel pyridine-based porous organic polymer of P[tVPB-VP x], the amphiphilic catalysts were produced and used as the stabilizer for Pickering emulsions. Specifically, an ultrafast ODS rate was realized in the HPW/P[tVPB-VP1]-stabilized Pickering emulsion catalytic system, and just within 15 min, 100 ppm dibenzothiophene (DBT) was completely oxidized by H2O2. Because the obtained hierarchical porous HPW/P[tVPB-VP x] catalysts showed both high adsorption capacity of DBT and excellent catalytic ODS performance, the catalysts assembling at the interface of emulsions provided this fastest reaction dynamics. Playing three roles of catalyst, emulsion stabilizer, and adsorbent, the synergistic functional catalytic emulsions can be a promising approach to significantly boost the heterogeneous catalytic ODS performance.