Heteropoly acid-based ionic liquid grafted on hybrid nanomaterial for deep oxidative desulfurization of diesel fuel

The silica-coated magnetic nanoparticles are useful materials to immobilize active agents on their surface. Herein, a new hybrid nanomaterial was constructed by grafting a heteropoly acid-based ionic liquid on the surface of NiFe 2 O 4 @SiO 2 magnetic nanoparticles. Structure of the prepared nanostructure [nano-NiFe 2 O 4 @SiO 2 -IMD@HPA] was elucidated by various techniques: X-ray powder diffraction, Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy, vibrating sample magnetometry, thermogravimetric analysis, the field emission scanning electron microscopy, and the electron-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy. The oxidative desulfurization (ODS) of real and model fuel in the presence of CH 3 COOH/UHP as an oxidizing system and nano-NiFe 2 O 4 @SiO 2 -IMD@HPA was considered. In this ODS process, a good result was obtained by removing 98–99% of benzothiophene and dibenzothiophene from simulated fuel. Also, 95% of the sulfur content was removed when the ODS process was tested on a real crude oil sample under optimized conditions. The hybrid nanocatalyst was recycled in the reaction five times without significant diminish in its activity. The working safety with urea-H 2 O 2 versus hydrogen peroxide, high removal of sulfur content, short reaction times, easy workup procedure, simple separation of nanocatalyst, reusability of nanocatalyst, and environmental compatibility makes this method a promising catalytic system for oxidative desulfurization of fuels. Graphical abstract