Highly Dispersed RuOOH Nanoparticles on Silica Spheres: An Efficient Photothermal Catalyst for Selective Aerobic Oxidation of Benzyl Alcohol

• Published in: Nano-micro letters Vol. 12; no. 1; p. 41
• Main Authors: Wei, Qilin, Guzman, Kiersten G., Dai, Xinyan, Attanayake, Nuwan H., Strongin, Daniel R., Sun, Yugang
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Singapore Springer Singapore 27.01.2020; Springer Nature B.V; SpringerOpen
• Subjects: Alcohol; Alternative energy sources; Benzyl alcohol; Catalysis; Catalysts; Chemical reactions; Electromagnetic absorption; Energy conversion efficiency; Engineering; Light; Light antenna effect; Light scattering; Light scattering resonance; Nanoparticles; Nanoscale Science and Technology; Nanospheres; Nanotechnology; Nanotechnology and Microengineering; Organic chemistry; Oxidation; Oxygen; Particulate composites; Photothermal catalyst; Photothermal conversion; Resonance scattering; Selective aerobic oxidation; Silicon dioxide; Solar energy; Surface area; Surface chemistry; Ultrafines; Ultrasmall RuOOH nanoparticles; Photothermal catalyst; Light scattering resonance; Selective aerobic oxidation; Light antenna effect; Ultrasmall RuOOH nanoparticles
• ISSN: 2311-6706; 2150-5551
• DOI: 10.1007/s40820-020-0375-9

Highlights Ultrasmall RuOOH nanoparticles of 2–3 nm are loaded on submicron silica spheres and capable of activating molecular oxygen. Photothermal conversion efficiency of the supported RuOOH nanoparticles is nearly unity. Photothermal effect promotes selective oxidation of benzyl alcohol under the illumination of visible light. Photothermal catalysis represents a promising strategy to utilize the renewable energy source (e.g., solar energy) to drive chemical reactions more efficiently. Successful and efficient photothermal catalysis relies on the availability of ideal photothermal catalysts, which can provide both large areas of catalytically active surface and strong light absorption power simultaneously. Such duplex requirements of a photothermal catalyst exhibit opposing dependence on the size of the catalyst nanoparticles, i.e., smaller size is beneficial for achieving higher surface area and more active surface, whereas larger size favors the light absorption in the nanoparticles. In this article, we report the synthesis of ultrafine RuOOH nanoparticles with a size of 2–3 nm uniformly dispersed on the surfaces of silica (SiO x ) nanospheres of hundreds of nanometers in size to tackle this challenge of forming an ideal photothermal catalyst. The ultrasmall RuOOH nanoparticles exhibit a large surface area as well as the ability to activate adsorbed molecular oxygen. The SiO x nanospheres exhibit strong surface light scattering resonances to enhance the light absorption power of the small RuOOH nanoparticles anchored on the SiO x surface. Therefore, the RuOOH/SiO x composite particles represent a new class of efficient photothermal catalysts with a photothermal energy conversion efficiency of 92.5% for selective aerobic oxidation of benzyl alcohol to benzylaldehyde under ambient conditions.