Enhanced Catalytic Performance on UiO-67(Zr) Prepared with the Aid of Vapor by Acid Treatment for Oxidative Desulfurization of Fuel Oil

UiO-67(Zr), as a member of Zr-based metal–organic frameworks (MOFs), has attracted much attention owing to its merits, involving large surface area, high pore volume, and good structural stability. However, it is generally inactive in many catalytic reactions due to a lack of active sites. In this work, we report a new strategy, combining vapor-assisted synthesis with acid treatment to create abundant active sites in UiO-67(Zr), resulting from defects. The effects of some synthetic parameters were systematically investigated. As a result, an optimized material named UiO-67(Zr)-V-0.5FA-H, obtained by acid-treating UiO-67(Zr) and prepared with the addition of 0.5 mL formic acid via a vapor-assisted method, exhibited outstanding catalytic performance in the oxidation of dibenzothiophene (DBT), which can completely oxidize DBT in 9 min at 30 °C using H2O2 as the oxidant. The calculated turnover frequency reached 150.4 h−1, surpassing those of most reported Zr-MOFs catalysts. In addition, it is demonstrated that UiO-67(Zr)-V-0.5FA-H is a heterogeneous catalyst and can be reused without obvious activity loss.