Noble-metal-free TiO2 photocatalysis for selective C
C 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 C
C over C
O 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 C
O bond sitting away from rather than near to the active sites of polar TiO2 catalysts.