Promoting the hydrogenation of acetone C–C coupling into pinacol with dehydrogenation of formic acid over a NaOH-treated g-C3N4 photocatalyst

Abstract

We aimed to construct a method involving the photocatalytic oxidative dehydrogenation of formic acid (FA) to promote the acetone reductive hydrogenation of C–C coupling, where photo-electrons and photo-holes could be effectively used. The results showed that the conversion rates of acetone and FA in the g-C₃N₄ photocatalytic acetone–FA coupling reaction system were 88.74% and 60.82%, respectively. Further research showed that the Na⁺ concentration on the surface of the C₃N₄ photocatalyst was also positively correlated with pinacol selectivity. The g-C₃N₄ treated with 5 M NaOH showed a high pinacol selectivity of 60.87%, which was increased by 32.30%.