Highly selective visible-light-triggered CO fixation to cyclic carbonates under mild conditions using TiO/multiwall carbon nanotubes (MWCNT) grafted with Pt or Pd nanoparticles

• Published in: New journal of chemistry Vol. 45; no. 37; pp. 1731 - 17312
• Main Authors: Elgohary, Elzahraa Ahmed, Mohamed, Yasser Mahmoud A, Rabie, Samira Taha, Salih, Said Abdelrahman, Fekry, Amany Mohamed, El Nazer, Hossam A
• Format: Journal Article
• Published: 27.09.2021
• ISSN: 1144-0546; 1369-9261
• DOI: 10.1039/d1nj03123f

Irradiation of a series of aromatic epoxides and CO 2 in the presence of TiO 2 , TiO 2 /MWCNT, Pt//TiO 2 /MWCNT and Pd/TiO 2 /MWCNT photocatalysts was investigated with visible light-induced cycloaddition reactions for the production of cyclic carbonates with high activity and selectivity. The catalytic activity order of these catalysts was revealed as follows: Pd/TiO 2 /MWCNT > Pt//TiO 2 /MWCNT > TiO 2 /MWCNT > TiO 2 . The main features of this protocol are the transformation of CO 2 to cyclic carbonates at ambient temperature and under atmospheric pressure. The band gap energies for Pd/TiO 2 /MWCNT and the Pt/TiO 2 /MWCNT nanocomposites were estimated from the Kubelka-Munk plots to be ca . ∼2.39 and 2.33 eV, respectively, and they proved to be active catalysts in comparison with bare TiO 2 or TiO 2 /MWCNT, which possess band gap values ca. ∼3.02 and 2.46 eV, respectively. A plausible mechanism explaining the behavior of CO 2 with the Pd/TiO 2 /MWCNT nanocomposite was proposed. Visible light-induced CO 2 fixation to cyclic carbonates catalyzed by Pd//TiO 2 /MWCNT photocatalyst.