Fabrication of oxygen-defective tungsten oxide nanorods for deep oxidative desulfurization of fuel

Owing to the increasingly serious environmental issues caused by the sulfur burnt in fuel, desulfurization has become an important topic. In this work, an amphiphilic oxygen-defective tungsten oxide was synthesized by a colloidal chemistry method. The amphiphilic property and oxygen defects were well characterized, and the structure of the oxygen-defective tungsten oxide catalyst was investigated. In addition, the catalyst was employed in oxidative desulfurization system of fuel, and deep desulfurization was achieved. It was found that the very high oxidative desulfurization performance of oxygen-defective tungsten oxide catalyst resulted from both the amphiphilic property and oxygen defects. This work can provide a strategy for preparation of highly active metal oxide catalysts with oxygen defects in oxidative desulfurization reaction of fuel.