Abstract
Bio-1-butanol as an important product from the fermentation of biomass has wide applications to the synthesis of high-value-added chemicals. Selective oxidation of CH2-OH bonds is an attractive strategy in terms of producing value-added butyric acid from 1-butanol. In recent years, thermocatalytic method was widely used to realize mild and green transformation of aliphatic alcohols into acids. However, thermal catalysis largely depends on strong chemical oxidants and noble metal utilization. Herein, we report efficient and selective photocatalytic oxidation of alcohols, catalyzed by inexpensive TiO2/NaBr photocatalytic system, using environmentally benign oxygen as the oxidant, to afford carbonyl acids in excellent yields. In this study, NaBr, alcohol and TiO2 were explored to enhance photocatalytic activity under visible-light irradiation, and mechanism of alcohol conversion were systematically studied. Detailed analysis revealed that the TiO2 surface complexing with alcohol species contribute to responding to visible light and the NaBr combinate with photogenerated holes to form bromine radicals, which can enhance alcohols oxidation performance.
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