The surface plasmon resonance, thermal, support and size effect induced photocatalytic activity enhancement of Au/reduced graphene oxide for selective oxidation of benzylic alcohols

Abstract

Reduced graphene oxide (RGO) as an electron-conductive medium and photosensitizer have been widely used to construct efficient RGO/semiconductor photocatalysts for solar energy conversion; however, the role of RGO has been largely underestimated. Herein, the surface plasmon resonance (SPR) effect, thermal effect, support effect, and size effect of Au/RGO are demonstrated to play important roles in enhancing the photocatalytic activity, which has not been considered previously. Au/RGO nanocomposites, synthesized via a facile wet chemistry route, exhibit an excellent visible light photocatalytic performance for selective oxidation of benzylic alcohols. A collection of joint techniques and control experiments have been employed to explain the SPR effect, thermal effect, support effect, and size effect over the Au/RGO photocatalyst. The possible reaction mechanism for the photocatalytic and thermocatalytic selective oxidation of alcohols over Au/RGO has also been discussed.

Thermo‐Photocatalysis: Environmental and Energy Applications

“…These electrons can follow different pathways for activation of N 2 molecules, which includes enhancing the catalytic activity of Fe or directly being accepted by the N 2 molecules. [86].C opyright 2017 The PCCP Owner Societies. [93] Methanol is considered as table and safe carriero fh ydrogen and the in situ release of H 2 by steam reforming of methanol (SRM) is an ideal fuel for fuel cells.…”

“…[84,85] Similarly Au/RGO nanocomposites have received considerable attention, owing to their broad range of potential applications, such as electrochemicals ensors, nanoelectronics, lithium ion batteries, electrocatalysts for fuel cells and the oxygen reduction reaction, thermocatalysts, andp hotocatalysts, for example. Zhang et al [86] synthesized Au/RGO nanocomposites by af acile wet chemistry route, and they exhibited excellent visible-light photocatalytic activity for selective oxidation of ar ange of benzyl alcohol derivatives (Table 1). Catalytics elective oxidation of benzylic alcohols was performed in a1 0mLP yrex glass bottle containing the catalyst and alcohols in benzotrifluoride as solvent.…”

“…Thermo-photocatalytic selectiveo xidation of ar ange of benzyl alcohol derivatives over Au/RGOf or 4h.R eprinted with permission from Ref [86]…”

Recent Progress in Catalytic Oxidative Transformations of Alcohols by Supported Gold Nanoparticles

“…However, the role of r‐GO is not quite clear. Zhang and co‐workers found that Au/r‐GO exhibited obvious visible light activity for selective oxidative transformations of benzylic alcohols . Meanwhile, the surface plasmon resonance (SPR) effect, support and thermal effects, and size effect of Au/r‐GO were discovered to play particular roles in improving the photocatalytic activity (Figure ).…”

A facile approach to synthesize CdS–attapulgite as a photocatalyst for reduction reactions in water

“…8,9 Physical, chemical and microbial methods have been extensively studied in the application of how to reduce it effectively. [10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18] In the previously reported literature, the NaBH 4 system is mainly used for the reduction of p-NP in chemical methods, especially. However, this method has been widely and deeply studied, so it is of great signicance to nd a more convenient and feasible chemical method to reduce p-NP.…”