Carbon dots induce abundant oxygen vacancies in CeVO4 for promoting photocatalytic selective hydrogenation of functionalized nitroarenes

Abstract

Photocatalysis has emerged as a promising method for the sustainable conversion of functionalized nitroarene molecules for targeting the production of anilines, in which selectivity is the vital issue. Here we realize an ideal selectivity by designing appropriate oxygen vacancies (OVs) in nanocatalysts for the chemoselective hydrogenation of 4-nitrostyrene. Carbon dots (CDs) are demonstrated to induce the formation of OVs in CeVO₄ under mild conditions for the first time. The abundant OVs in CeVO₄ provide unique active sites for a selective bond with the –NO₂ of 4-nitrostyrene and precisely govern the active hydrogen species from NaBH₄ and photoinduced carriers to take part in the selective hydrogenation reaction. Therefore, OV-rich CeVO₄ presents remarkable activity and selectivity for the chemoselective hydrogenation of 4-nitrostyrene to 4-aminostyrene under visible light irradiation. This work offers an efficient and energy-saving strategy to construct a novel nanocatalytic platform using green and low-cost CDs.