Tuning product selectivity in nitrobenzene reduction over a single Bi2MoO6 photocatalyst in one pot: Mechanisms and roles of reaction compositions

Abstract

Poor product selectivity of metal oxide photocatalysts is one of crucial issues limiting their application in photocatalytic organic synthesis particularly when multiple parallel reactions as well as several intermediates and products are involved, as in the reduction of nitrobenzene (NB) in this present study. Accordingly, catalyst modification is often needed. Herein, we first demonstrate that without catalyst modification it is feasible to control product selectivity over a single bismuth molybdate photocatalyst to selectively prepare three different valuable compounds including aniline (AN), azobenzene (AZO) and azoxybenzene (AZX) with high efficacy. Two widely used bismuth molybdate photocatalysts, namely Bi2MoO6 and Bi4MoO9, were studied and compared. Bi2MoO6 offers better visible-light-driven photocatalytic performance than Bi4MoO9 partly due to its narrow band gap energy and efficient charge carrier separation and transfer as evidenced from UV–vis DRS, EIS, and transient photocurrent studies. The roles of hydrazine hydrate, alcohol solvent, and KOH additive on the transfer hydrogenation of NB were examined and their concentrations were optimized to solely obtain the three different products with excellent selectivity (>98%). Based on UV–vis DRS and Mott-Schottky analysis, the band energy level of Bi2MoO6 and plausible reactions at solid–liquid interface are proposed. The capability to control product selectivity over a single photocatalyst in one pot demonstrated in this work would make the process more practical especially for continuous flow photochemical systems.