Construction of heterojunctions CeO2 interfaced Nb, Sn, Ti, Mo and Zn metal oxide catalysts for photocatalytic oxidation of α-pinene inert C-H

Mlungisi A. Mavuso, Peter R. Makgwane, Suprakas Sinha Ray

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

6 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Construction of heterojunctions semiconductors provide an improvement in photo-optics for light absorption, photo carriers generation, and transfer for their efficient utilization in redox reactions. Herein, heterostructured CeO2 catalysts containing Ti, Mo, Nb, Sn and Zn oxides nanostructures are synthesized and evaluated for their photoactivity in α-pinene selective oxidation using acetonitrile solvent at 25 °C reaction temperature. Both conversion and selectivity are affected by the nature of the hetero-interfaced metal oxide to CeO2. CeO2-Mo shows the best photocatalytic performance to achieve pinene oxide selectivity of 64% at 66% of pinene conversion after 5 h of light irradiation. The enhanced photoactivity of CeO2 heterostructured catalysts compared to CeO2 is ascribed to their red-shift light absorption edges to visible region because of the two metal oxides interactions and structure modifications, which improved the e-/h+ charge carrier's generation and separation for their efficient transfer due to suppressed recombination. Importantly, the combination of redox nature of interfaced CeO2 heterostructured catalysts and oxygen vacancies shows to be pivotal for the photocatalytic activity enhancement in the selective oxidation of pinene inert C-H bond.

Original languageEnglish
Article number109199
JournalInorganic Chemistry Communication
Volume137
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Mar 2022

Keywords

  • Cerium dioxide
  • Heterostructure metal oxide
  • Photocatalyst
  • Photooxidation
  • Pinene

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Physical and Theoretical Chemistry
  • Inorganic Chemistry
  • Materials Chemistry

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