Effects of water content on the solubility between Isopropanol-Butanol-Ethanol (IBE) and diesel fuel under various ambient temperatures

•Anhydrous IBE and diesel have good mutual solubility from 0 to 60 °C ambient temperature.•Water-containing IBE can be mixed with diesel to prepare diesel microemulsion.•The particle size of the water-containing IBE-diesel mixture is 3–53 nm.•IBE (3:6:1) and diesel has the best water tolerance than other ratios.•N-Butanol in IBE is the key to promote the mutual solubility of diesel and water.