Construction of hollow nanoreactors for enhanced photo-oxidations
Oxidation of primary alcohols to carboxylic acids is of importance in both organic chemistry and the chemical industry because the oxidation products can be used to prepare various pharmaceuticals and useful chemicals. The photocatalytic oxidation process has been considered as a sustainable technology to achieve the selective oxidation under ambient conditions with irradiation from solar light. To develop superior photocatalysts with a broad-range of light absorption and efficient electron-hole separation, surface modification with metal nanoparticles such as Au and Pt allow for the fast transfer of photoexcited electrons to the surface active sites. Therefore, bimetallic Au and Pt catalysts would be desirable by combining the advantages of both the surface plasmonic resonance effect on Au and the activation effect on Pt to further enhance the efficiency for catalytic oxidation under visible light irradiation.