Robust cooperative of cadmium sulfide with highly ordered hollow microstructure coordination polymers for regulating the photocatalytic performance

Abstract

Accurately controlling and achieving selective reactivity at difficult-to-access reaction sites in organic molecules is challenging owing to the similar local and electronic environments of multiple reaction sites. In this work, we regulated multiple reaction sites in a highly selective and active manner using cobalt coordination polymers (Co-CP) 1 and 1a with various particle sizes and morphologies ranging from large granular to ordered hollow hemispheres by introducing sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) as a surfactant. The size and morphology of the catalysts could be tuned by controlling the amount of SDS. An SDS concentration of 0.03 mmol generated 1a having a highly ordered hollow hemispherical microstructure with a well-defined platform as a pre-made building unit. Cadmium sulfide (CdS), as a typical photocatalyst, was subsequently uniformly anchored in-situ on the premade building unit 1a to produce CdS@1a composites, that inherited the originally ordered hollow hemispherical microstructure while integrating CdS as well-dispersed catalytic active sites. Furthermore, the well-established CdS@1a composites were used as photocatalysts in selective oxidation reactions under air atmosphere with blue irradiation. The CdS0.109@1a composite with unique structural characteristics, including uniformly distributed and easily accessible catalytic sites and excellent photoelectrochemical performance, served as a highly efficient heterogeneous photocatalyst for promoting the selective oxidation of sulfides to sulfoxides as the sole products. This work presents an approach for fabricating CPs as premade building units that function as well-defined platforms for integration with photocatalysts, enabling tuning of the structure-selectivity-activity relationships.