Strategies in photochemical alcohol oxidation on noble-metal free nanomaterials as heterogeneous catalysts

Abstract

Using light absorbing semiconductors to harvest solar energy has long been considered as a promising approach for driving chemical reactions. Photochemical oxidation of alcohols catalyzed by noble-metal free nanomaterials is particularly attractive due to the bio-derivable nature of the substrate and the wide availability of such catalysts. Here, a number of strategies that could facilitate the progress are discussed, where it is concluded that the photochemical alcohol oxidation process can benefit from both mechanistic optimization of the electron-transfer steps and structural engineering of the light-absorbing nanomaterials.