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Unveiling Synergetic Photocatalytic Activity from Heterometallic Ti/Ce Clusters
Xingjie Wang1, Fanrui Sha2, Haomiao Xie2
1State Key Laboratory of Pulp and Paper Engineering, School of Light Industry and Engineering, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou 510640, China.
New titanium-cerium (Ti/Ce)-oxo clusters show enhanced photocatalytic activity for alcohol oxidation. The Ce3+ content and synergistic radical effects are key to their superior performance.
Area of Science:
- Materials Science
- Photocatalysis
- Inorganic Chemistry
Background:
- Titanium-oxo clusters are investigated as photocatalysts due to their structure and properties.
- Heterometallic Ti/M-oxo clusters offer tunable functionality for mechanistic studies and catalyst design.
- Incorporating cerium (Ce) into Ti-oxo clusters adds redox and oxygen harvesting capabilities, but synthesis is challenging.
Purpose of the Study:
- To synthesize and characterize novel structurally defined titanium-cerium (Ti/Ce)-oxo clusters.
- To investigate the photocatalytic properties of these Ti/Ce-oxo clusters, focusing on alcohol oxidation.
- To elucidate the structure-activity relationships and understand the role of cerium species in photocatalysis.
Main Methods:
- Synthesis of two specific Ti/Ce-oxo clusters: Ti8Ce2(BA)16 and Ti9Ce4(BA)20, and a TiCe-BA cluster (Ti20Ce9O36(BA)42).
- Structural characterization of the synthesized Ti/Ce-oxo clusters.
- Photocatalytic evaluation, particularly for aerobic alcohol oxidation under light irradiation.
Main Results:
- Successful synthesis of structurally defined Ti/Ce-oxo clusters, expanding the library of heterometallic Ti/M-oxo clusters.
- Photocatalytic studies revealed that the concentration of Ce3+ species significantly influences oxidation performance.
- The Ti/Ce-oxo clusters exhibited superior photocatalytic reactivity in aerobic alcohol oxidation, attributed to synergistic radical effects.
Conclusions:
- This work represents a significant advancement in constructing stable Ti/Ce-oxo clusters.
- The synthesized clusters show promising photoluminescence and photovoltaic properties.
- The findings provide valuable insights into designing efficient photocatalysts based on Ti/Ce-oxo cluster systems.
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