Liquid/liquid biphasic oxidations are extensively employed in the chemical industry to manufacture a variety of
chemicals and for environmental issues, such as the oxidative denitrogenated (ODN) and desulfurization of fuels.
The ubiquitous presence of nitrogenated and sulfonated compounds in petroleum-derived fuels is associated with
environmental and health issues, driving legislation to become stricter regarding the content or related emissions
of those impurities. However, catalysts with high performance, low cost and high activity towards selective
oxidation of targeted contaminants should be developed. This work deals with the oxidative denitrogenation of
quinoline and pyridine, used as model nitrogenated compounds, using carbon nanotubes as catalysts, which were
derived from polyolefins (low-density polyethylene, high-density polyethylene and propylene) representative of
plastic solid waste (PSWs) mixtures found in municipal solid wastes. The carbon precursor used offers not only a
solution to reduce PSWs accumulation in waste management systems but also a cheap feedstock for preparing
CNTs. All PSWs-derived CNTs allowed to remove quinoline completely, pyridine, and both of them in a mixture
under the same conditions (1 h, 80 ◦C, ccat = 2.5 g L^-1, [H2O2]0 = 247 g L^-1, O/W volume ratio = 80:20, [N]0 =
108 mg L^-1). These results were maintained for up to 5 additional reuse cycles for the catalyst prepared with
mixed polyolefins.
