Fully conversing and highly selective oxidation of benzene to phenol based on MOFs-derived CuO@CN photocatalyst

Abstract

Developing highly efficient photocatalysts for selective oxidation of benzene to phenol is of great significance. However, it is still challenging to simultaneously achieve high conversion rate and selectivity. Herein, we demonstrate 99.9% of benzene photoconversion and 99.1% of phenol selectivity under the illumination of AM 1.5 for 12 h. For this purpose, an advanced CuO@CN photocatalyst has been fabricated by loading tubular carbon nitride (CN) with CuO nanoparticles thermally polymerized from Cu-based metal-organic frameworks (MOFs). The sluggish photocharge carrier recombination rate and the excellent stability indicate that the as-prepared nanocomposite is an ideal photocatalyst for benzene oxidation application. This work paves a new avenue for designing novel photocatalyst based on MOFs and carbon nitride materials.