An advanced plasmonic photocatalyst containing silver(0) single atoms for selective borylation of aryl iodides

Abstract

A conventional plasmonic Ag-AgCl photocatalyst consists of Ag nanoparticles (AgNPs) and AgCl. Here, we converted a small amount of Ag+ on the surfaces of AgCl particles into single-atom Ag(0) (SAAg). SAAg was characterized with high-angle annular dark field aberration corrected (HAADF AC)-STEM and quantified with electron spin resonance (ESR). The obtained AgEG/Mg(OH)2 material was efficient and afforded excellent selectivity control between hydrodehalogenation and deiodination-borylation under visible light irradiation. SAAg acted as the 1e−-reducing site of the photocatalyst and its loading is linearly correlated with the initial reaction rate. While the quantity of SAAg was only 6.0 × 10–8 mol g−1, the TOF of SAAg reached 1.4 × 104 h−1. The oxidation state of SAAg retained 0 in both the resting and the working states. This study suggests SAAg may be an effective cocatalyst in general for reductive dehalogenation of organic halides.