MoOx nanoclusters decorated on spinel-type transition metal oxide porous nanosheets for aerobic oxidative desulfurization of fuels

•A bottom-up approach is developed to immobilize MoOx nanoclusters on metal oxides.•The electronic structure of Mo sites can be effectively modulated by the carriers.•MoOx/CuCo2O4 shows excellent performance in the aerobic oxidation of thiophenes.•The catalyst exhibits a prominent stability through the repeated experiments.