Visible-light-induced hydrogenation of biomass-based aldehydes by graphitic carbon nitride supported metal catalysts

The plasmonic photocatalyst of Pd supported on graphitic carbon nitride (Pd/g-C3N4) exhibits excellent catalytic activity in photo-induced hydrogenation of biomass-based aldehydes with environmental benign reagents of formic acid (HCOOH) as proton source and triethylamine (TEA) as sacrificial electron donator. The chemical and configurational properties of the Pd/g-C3N4 were systematically analyzed with XRD, TEM and XPS. Under optimized conditions, 27% yield of furfuryl alcohol with the corresponding turnover frequency (TOF) around 3.72 h(-1) were obtained from furfural and TEA-HCOOH under visible-light irradiation by using Pd/g-C3N4. Our research additionally reveals that Pd atom is the true catalytic active site for the hydrogenation and the photo-promoted reduction mainly occurs through noble metal nanoparticles (NPs)-induced effect of surface plasmon resonance (SPR). The photo-catalytic system of Pd/g-C3N4 thus demonstrates a green and effective method for the hydrogenation of biomass-based aldehydes with sustainable solar energy as a driven force. (C) 2020, Institute of Process Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences. Publishing services by Elsevier B.V. on behalf of KeAi Communications Co., Ltd.