Cao Rong and Gao Shuiying of Fujian Institute of physical composition have made new progress in the study of visible light photocatalytic oxidation-reduction reaction

Photocatalysis driven by sunlight provides a new way to solve the environmental and energy problems How to improve the absorption range and promote the separation of carriers has been a hot topic As we all know, under the illumination of semiconductor catalyst, if the photon energy absorbed by the catalyst is equal to or greater than its band gap width, photogenerated electrons and holes will be generated Photogenerated electrons have a strong reduction ability, and holes have a strong oxidation ability, so they can carry out the oxygenation reaction on organic matters The separation of carriers can be improved by making full use of photo generated holes and electrons to drive redox reaction, coupling two valuable organic reactions into a photocatalytic reaction system, and avoiding the introduction of additional sacrificial agents This design idea, as a new research direction, has aroused widespread interest With the support of the national key research and development program, the strategic leading science and technology program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the National Natural Science Foundation, Cao Rong and Gao Shuiying, the State Key Laboratory of structural chemistry of Fujian Institute of physical architecture, have made new progress in coupling visible light catalytic oxidation reaction and reduction reaction in a photocatalysis reaction system The team cleverly coupled the oxidation of benzyl alcohol and the reduction of nitrobenzene into one system Through theoretical calculation and paramagnetic resonance, it is proved that there are a lot of oxygen vacancies on the surface of titanium dioxide during the reaction This method avoids the harsh conditions of high temperature and high pressure, and also extends the visible light absorption range of the system In the coupling system, no sacrificial agent is needed, and photogenerated electrons are used for reduction of nitrobenzene, while holes with strong oxidation can catalyze the reduction of benzyl alcohol, which greatly promotes the separation and utilization of photogenerated carriers, and the photocatalytic activity is significant The above results were published in Journal of catalyst (Journal of catalyst, 2019, 373, 116-125) The first author of this paper is Yang Xue, a doctoral student