Robust porous organic polymers as efficient heterogeneous organo-photocatalysts for aerobic oxidation reactions

• Published in: Journal of materials chemistry. A, Materials for energy and sustainability Vol. 5; no. 18; pp. 8697 - 8704
• Main Authors: Zhi, Yongfeng, Li, Kun, Xia, Hong, Xue, Ming, Mu, Ying, Liu, Xiaoming
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: 2017
• Subjects: adsorption; Amines; carbon; Catalysis; Catalysts; cost effectiveness; dehydrogenation; electron microscopy; filtration; Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy; irradiation; Networks; nitrogen; nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy; oxidants; Oxidation; oxygen; Photocatalysis; Photocatalysts; photochemistry; Polymers; primary amines; stable isotopes; surface area; thermogravimetry; X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy
• ISSN: 2050-7488; 2050-7496; 2050-7496
• DOI: 10.1039/C7TA02205K

Metal-free, visible-light active and heterogeneous organic photocatalysts offer a more sustainable and environmentally friendly alternative to traditional metal-based catalysts. Here a porous organic hyper-crosslinked polymer, CF-HCP, was successfully synthesized through a facile and cost-effective process. The chemical and structural properties of CF-HCP were fully characterized by using powder X-ray diffraction analysis, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, 13 C solid-state NMR spectroscopy, electron microscopy, thermogravimetric analysis, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and nitrogen adsorption. The new three-dimensional hyper-crosslinked network possesses a high Brunauer–Emmett–Teller (BET) specific surface area up to 1200 m 2 g −1 with a pore volume of 0.92 cm 3 g −1 , and exhibits good thermal, chemical and photochemical stability. Importantly, CF-HCP was found to be a highly effective heterogeneous photocatalyst for a wide range of organic reactions, including the oxidative coupling of primary amines, dehydrogenation of nonactive secondary amine substrates, and selective oxidation of sulfide under visible-light irradiation and using molecular oxygen as a clean oxidant. In particular, mild reaction conditions, ease of product separation by simple filtration, significant recyclability and low cost make this network material an economical and eco-friendly catalyst for the preparation of versatile organic compounds.