@article{Tian2025, 
author = {Sheng Tian and Jinxin Li and Binghao Wang and Xiong Wang and Xingsheng Hu and Huijuan Wang and Lang Chen and Shuang-Feng Yin},
title = {Water enhances photocatalytic activity for toluene selective oxidation in acetic acid solution},
year = {2025},
journal = {Nano Research},
volume = {18},
number = {3},
pages = {94907206},
keywords = {hydroxyl radicals, H2O, photocatalytic oxidation of toluene, acidic chemical environment, BiOBr/Bi2MoO6},
url = {https://www.sciopen.com/article/10.26599/NR.2025.94907206},
doi = {10.26599/NR.2025.94907206},
abstract = {Photocatalytic oxidation of hydrocarbons to value-added oxygen-containing compounds is a green and sustainable method. However, the efficient activation of C(sp3)–H bonds under mild conditions remains a significant challenge. In this study, we prepared BiOBr/Bi2MoO6 Z-scheme heterostructure for photocatalytic selective oxidation of toluene to benzaldehyde utilizing acetic acid as solvent. A small amount of water as an additive established an acidic environment to facilitate the formation of highly reactive hydroxyl radicals (·OH) through the O2 →·O2− → H2O2 →·OH process. The ·OH together with photogenerated holes acted as reactive species dissociate C(sp3)–H bonds, which is regarded as the rate-determining step for this reaction, boosting photocatalytic activity. Compared to the reaction system without water, the conversion of toluene increased from 23.6% to 39.0%, reaching a toluene conversion rate of 6110 μmol·g–1·h–1. Additionally, there is a slight improvement in the selectivity of benzaldehyde.}
}