ORIGINAL PAPER V 2 O 5 –polyimide hybrid material: synthesis, characterization, and sulfur removal properties in fuels Selim Erdog ˘an • Su ¨ leyman Ko ¨ytepe • Turgay Sec ¸kin • Yunus O ¨ nal • Sema Vural • Canan Akmil Bas ¸ar Received: 16 January 2013 / Accepted: 15 June 2013 / Published online: 29 June 2013 Ó Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2013 Abstract We describe the synthesis of a new sorbent material for desulfurization of gasoline, which is composed of polyimide (PI) and vanadium pentoxide via the solution direct-dispersing method. The highly porous PI–V 2 O 5 hybrid materials, containing different concentrations of V 2 O 5 ranging from 1 to 10 wt%, were prepared from pyromellitic dianhydride, 2,4,6-triaminopyrimidine, and vanadium pentoxide. The produced PI–V 2 O 5 composites were investigated by X-ray diffraction analysis, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, scanning electron micro- scope, and thermal analysis techniques. The effect of V 2 O 5 on the sulfur removal properties as well as the thermal stability and porous structure of composites were investi- gated. Then the obtained material was investigated to determine their sorption characteristics for sulfur com- pounds from fuels. By use of this material, 91 wt% of the sulfur content was removed from sulfur-containing stan- dard oil. An economic sensitive and simple method for the removal and separation of sulfur in fuel samples, using an PI–V 2 O 5 packed mini chromatographic column, was established. Keywords Polymers Á Oxides Á Composites Á Microporous materials Á Microstructure Introduction The development of materials, which have structures based on interactions between organic and inorganic components, makes possible to explore the chemical and physical properties of individual components in a new way (Cheetham 1994; Judeinstein and Sanchez 1996; Mac- lachlan et al. 2000; Gomez-Romero 2001; Oriakhi 2000). One simple example of this approach is based on the incorporation of inorganic fibers into a glass-like or cross- linked organic matrix to obtain rigid materials (Allcock 1992). Another approach can be the combination of two or more polymers in network form: one component is poly- merized and/or cross-linked in the presence of another component (Sperling and Mishra 1996). The former approach encompasses the classical organic–inorganic composite materials, which contain gross phase disconti- nuities at the macroscopic or microscopic levels (Allcock 1992). The latter emphasizes the intimate mixing of dif- ferent polymers in the solid state forming a stabilized interpenetrating polymer network that enables the devel- opment of new materials with promising technological applications (Allcock 1992; Sperling and Mishra 1996). Thus, using this approach, the purpose of this report is to describe the preparation of a new organic–inorganic hybrid material in which the organic component is the polyimide (PI) and the inorganic component is the vanadium pent- oxide. Vanadium pentoxide was chosen because vanadium- containing compounds have been widely used in desul- furization of petroleum product (Gregori et al. 2008; Long et al. 2005; Caero et al. 2005; Caero et al. 2006). The S. Erdog ˘an (&) Á S. Ko ¨ytepe Á T. Sec ¸kin Á S. Vural Department of Chemistry, University of Inonu, 44280 Malatya, Turkey e-mail: selim.erdogan@inonu.edu.tr S. Erdog ˘an Á S. Ko ¨ytepe Á T. Sec ¸kin Á Y. O ¨ nal Á S. Vural Á C. A. Bas ¸ar Department of Agredite Fuel Analysis Laboratory, University of Inonu, 44280 Malatya, Turkey Y. O ¨ nal Á C. A. Bas ¸ar Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Inonu, 44280 Malatya, Turkey 123 Clean Techn Environ Policy (2014) 16:619–628 DOI 10.1007/s10098-013-0657-8