In this paper, trifluoroethanol (TFE) was confined into SBA-15 and compared with its similar non-fluorous systems in the metal-free oxidation of sulfides to sulfoxides in the presence of H2O2. This catalytic system successfully performed the oxidation and also showed superior activity to the other non-fluorous versions. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.