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Mesoporous iron-doped hydroxyapatite (HA) powders with a surface area up to 141 m 2 /g were synthesized and characterized by a variety of analytical and computational approaches, including X-ray diffraction (XRD) and X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy (XRF), atomic emission spectrometry with inductively coupled plasma (AES-ICP), Fourier transform infrared absorption (FTIR), nitrogen adsorption−desorption (BET), scanning and transmission electron microscopy (SEM and TEM), electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR), and density functional theory (DFT). Based on the data of TEM with mapping, the homogeneous distribution of Fe was evidenced. Fe 3+ ions were detected by EPR, and according to DFT, Fe 3+ occupied the Ca(2) position. The second part of the manuscript was dedicated to evaluating the catalytic properties of the developed HA powders for oxidative desulfurization, which is a promising alternative to hydrotreating for fuel purification. For this purpose, the molybdenum was impregnated on the HA, and iron-HA powders and the influence of its amount and the iron content were investigated. The optimal process parameters such as rotation speed, amount of H 2 O 2 , reaction time, temperature, and quantity of the catalyst were established and for the first time, to the authors' best knowledge, complete conversion of dibenzothiophene in the presence of an HA-based catalyst was achieved due to a combination of active sites of iron cations and molybdate anions.

Mesoporous hydroxyapatite (HA) and iron(III)-doped HA (Fe-HA) are attractive materials for biomedical, catalytic, and environmental applications. In the present study, the nanopowders of HA and Fe-HA with a specific surface area up to 194.5 m2/g were synthesized by a simple precipitation route using iron oxalate as a source of Fe3+ cations. The influence of Fe3+ amount on the phase composition, powders morphology, Brunauer–Emmett–Teller (BET) specific surface area (S), and pore size distribution were investigated, as well as electron paramagnetic resonance and Mössbauer spectroscopy analysis were performed. According to obtained data, the Fe3+ ions were incorporated in the HA lattice, and also amorphous Fe oxides were formed contributed to the gradual increase in the S and pore volume of the powders. The Density Functional Theory calculations supported these findings and revealed Fe3+ inclusion in the crystalline region with the hybridization among Fe-3d and O-2p orbitals and a partly covalent bond formation, whilst the inclusion of Fe oxides assumed crystallinity damage and rather occurred in amorphous regions of HA nanomaterial. In vitro tests based on the MG-63 cell line demonstrated that the introduction of Fe3+ does not cause cytotoxicity and led to the enhanced cytocompatibility of HA.

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