Synthesis of Confined HPW@ZIF-8 for Ambient Catalytic Oxidation of Aromatic Sulfides in Diesel

The catalytic oxidation of aromatic sulfides under mild, ambient conditions facilitates the high-value utilization of diesel fuel, free from external heating sources. Herein, a high-performance confined catalyst through a simple one-pot method is developed, denoted as HPW@ZIF-8. The phosphotungstic acid is encapsulated and confined within the pores of the ZIF-8 framework, achieving ambient temperature catalytic oxidation of aromatic sulfides to high-value sulfones. The induced charge shift in the confined catalysis is observed, as the weak interaction force between the phosphorus-tungsten structure and Zn center, strengthening the catalytic oxidation performance. Under unheated conditions, the hydrogen peroxide utilization rate and activity of the catalyst at ambient temperature are both greater than 97.0%. In addition, the confined catalysts exhibit good cycling performance after 10 cycles, attributed to the highly matched host and guest, with only 0.2% HPW loss. Above all, this work offers new insights for the green, low-energy consumption, and high-value utilization of diesel fuel. Graphical Constructing confined catalytic materials by encapsulating active centers in the cavities of ZIF-8 metal-organic frameworks. This strategy enables the efficient catalytic oxidation of sulfur-containing compounds in diesel to high-value sulfone products at ambient temperatures. This produces ultra-low diesel with a sulfur content of less than 10 mg/L.