Related Experiment Video
Updated: Aug 12, 2025

Surface Functionalization of Metal-Organic Frameworks for Improved Moisture Resistance
Published on: September 5, 2018
Selectively Permeable FeOOH Amorphous Layer Coating CdS for Enhancing Photocatalytic Conversion of Benzyl Alcohol and
Yan Li1, Yingxin Guo1, Chengsi Pan1
1International Joint Research Center for Photoresponsive Molecules and Materials, School of Chemical and Material Engineering, Jiangnan University, 214122, Wuxi, P. R. China.
Abstract:
The development of new strategies to improve reaction efficiency and light utilization is one of the biggest challenges in photosynthetic chemistry. Dynamics control, particularly tuning the adsorption/desorption of reactants and products, is an ideal way to improve the conversion and selectivity in catalytic reactions, but it is rarely studied for photocatalytic organic synthesis. This study concerns the design of an amorphous FeOOH coating to decorate CdS photocatalyst to control the adsorption and desorption of reactants and products to improve reaction efficiency for the photocatalytic conversion of benzyl alcohol (BA) into benzaldehyde (BAD). The best conversion of the core-shell photocatalyst is 74.1 % in 2 h, together with >99.9 % selectivity to BAD, and the photocatalyst exhibits response above 600 nm, which is the longest active wavelength reported for the reaction. Further data illustrate that the amorphous FeOOH coating enables selective sorption of BA/BAD molecules by H-bonding interactions, which may result in the excellent performance. Construction of amorphous coating layers and understanding the selective permeability may provide a new strategy for the design of more efficient photocatalytic systems for organic synthesis.
Related Concept Videos
Benzene to 1,4-Cyclohexadiene: Birch Reduction Mechanism
Reduction of Benzene to Cyclohexane: Catalytic Hydrogenation
Electrophilic Aromatic Substitution: Sulfonation of Benzene
Photochemical Electrocyclic Reactions: Stereochemistry
Selection Rules: Photochemical Activation
Electrophilic Aromatic Substitution: Friedel–Crafts Alkylation of Benzene
Reactions of Aldehydes and Ketones: Baeyer–Villiger Oxidation
The carbonyl center is...

