Noble-metal-free TiO2 photocatalysis for selective CC reduction of α,β-enones by CF3SO3H modification

Abstract

The highly selective CC reduction of α,β-enones was realized by CF₃SO₃H-modifying noble-metal-free TiO₂ photocatalysis. Selectivity for CC over CO reduction was dramatically reversed from fair (∼42% without CF₃SO₃H-modifying) to excellent (>99%) upon only 6 mol% CF₃SO₃H loading without any noble-metal additive. Attenuated total reflectance-Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (ATR-FTIR) and ¹³C-nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) demonstrated that CF₃SO₃H modification results in the α,β-enone polar CO bond sitting away from rather than near to the active sites of polar TiO₂ catalysts.