Chemoselective aliphatic carbon–carbon bond activation photocatalyzed by vanadium oxo complexes under ambient conditions and visible light.

Significant efforts are devoted to developing artificial photosynthetic systems to produce fuels and chemicals in order to cope with the exacerbating energy and environmental crises in the world now. Nonetheless, the large-scale reactions that are the focus of the artificial photosynthesis community, such as water splitting, are thus far not economically viable, owing to the existing, cheaper alternatives to the gaseous hydrogen and oxygen products. As a potential substitute for water oxidation, here, a unique, visible light-driven oxygenation of carboncarbon bonds for the selective transformation of 32 unactivated alcohols, mediated by a vanadium photocatalyst under ambient, atmospheric conditions is presented. Furthermore, since the initial alcohol products remain as substrates, an unprecedented photodriven cascade carboncarbon bond cleavage of macromolecules can be performed. Accordingly, hydroxyl-terminated polymers such as polyethylene glycol, its block co-polymer with polycaprolactone, and even the non-biodegradable polyethylene can be repurposed into fuels and chemical feedstocks, such as formic acid and methyl formate. Thus, a distinctive approach is presented to integrate the benefits of photoredox catalysis into environmental remediation and artificial photosynthesis.

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Visible light assisted photocatalytic organic reactions have recently received intense attention as a versatile approach to achieve selective chemical transformations, including C-C and several C-X (X = N, O, S) bond formations under mild reaction conditions. The light harvesters in previous reports predominantly comprise ruthenium or iridium photosensitizers. In contrast, selective, photocatalytic aliphatic C-C bond cleavage reactions are scarce. The present study focuses on rationally designing V V oxo complexes as molecular, photoredox catalysts towards the selective activation and cleavage of a C-C bond adjacent to the alcohol group in aliphatic alcoholic substrates. We have employed kinetics measurements and DFT calculations to develop a candidate for the catalytic C-C bond activation reaction that is up to 7 times faster than our original vanadium complex. We have also identified a substrate where the C-C bond cleaves at rates 2.5-17 times faster, depending on the catalyst used. In order to better understand the effects of ligand modification on the thermodynamics and catalysis, DFT calculations were employed to reveal the orbital energies, the electronic transitions during the C-C bond cleavage, and the activation barriers. Our combined kinetics and computational studies indicate that the incorporation of electron withdrawing groups at select sites of the ligand are essential for the development of active and stable vanadium photocatalysts for our C-C bond cleavage reactions.

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In this report, a three-dimensional (3-D) network of core-shell TiO (P25)-mesoporous SiO (P25@mSiO) nanocomposites was prepared via a controllable surfactant-assisted sol-gel method. The nanocomposites were investigated for photocatalytic reactions of organic dye degradation, water splitting, and CO reduction to understand the roles of the mSiO shell in these photocatalytic reactions. It was found that the mSiO shell accelerates the photodegradation of the organic dye, but dramatically reduces the photocatalytic activity of P25 in water splitting and CO reduction. The roles played by the mSiO shell in the photocatalytic reactions are summarized as: (1) effective prevention of agglomeration of P25 nanoparticles, (2) facilitating the transfer of uncharged photo-generated ˙OH radicals via the abundant -OH groups on the mesoporous surface, (3) provision of increased reaction sites between ˙OH radicals and dye molecules by its mesoporous nanostructure and large surface area, and (4) prevention of diffusion of the photo-generated charge carriers (photoelectrons and photoholes) because of its insulating nature.

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