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Updated: Sep 16, 2025

Developing Photosensitizer-Cobaloxime Hybrids for Solar-Driven H2 Production in Aqueous Aerobic Conditions
Published on: October 5, 2019
Photocatalytic Acceptorless Conversion of Carboxylic Acids, Aldehydes, and Alcohols to Alkenes by a TiO2 and
Eiki Maruyama1, Xiongjie Jin1, Kyoko Nozaki1
1Department of Chemistry and Biotechnology, Graduate School of Engineering, The University of Tokyo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113-8656, Japan.
Abstract:
TiO2 has been extensively used as a heterogeneous photocatalyst in both the fields of inorganic and organic chemistry. However, the combination of the TiO2 photocatalyst with transition-metal complexes for regulating the reactivity of radical species has been less explored. Here, we report the conversion of various oxygenates, such as carboxylic acids, aldehydes, or alcohols, to the corresponding one-carbon shorter alkenes using a TiO2 and cobaloxime dual-photocatalyst system. In this dual-catalyst system, highly active alkyl radical intermediates are first generated on the TiO2 surface, and then trapping of them by cobaloxime steers the reaction toward the formation of alkene products rather than the simple decarboxylated alkane products.
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