Deep desulfurization of fuel oil is always a highly challenging
issue. In this work, Zr
X
PTA material was
obtained by directly combining the ZrIV active site with
PTA, and it was found that Zr
X
PTA has
excellent catalytic activity in the oxidative desulfurization (ODS)
process. Further, Zr
X
PTA was loaded on
γ-Al2O3 by the two-step impregnation to
obtain a granular Al2O3@Zr
X
PTA composite. The successful synthesis of the material
was verified by X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier transform infrared
(FT-IR), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy-dispersive spectrometry
(EDS), and N2 adsorption–desorption. The results
show that Al2O3@Zr
X
PTA maintains the high ODS activity of Zr
X
PTA and realizes the rapid and complete removal of dibenzothiophene
under mild reaction conditions (T = 40 °C, O/S
= 4, t = 30 min). The mechanism study shows that
the ODS activity of Al2O3@Zr
X
PTA is wholly derived from the counterpart of Zr
X
PTA, which benefits from the synergistic catalytic
effect between the ZrIV active site and PTA. The direct
binding of these two active sites makes the synergistic effect fully
exerted. In addition, the recovery of Al2O3@Zr
X
PTA can be easily realized by simple filtration
or decantation, and no significant activity loss was observed after
five times recycling. Therefore, Al2O3@Zr
X
PTA has high ODS activity, high catalytic stability,
and great potential as an ODS catalyst in practical applications.