Dehydrogenation of anhydrous methanol at room temperature by o-aminophenol-based photocatalysts.
basic_science · Level V
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 27457731.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1038/ncomms12333 and PMC identifier 4963534.
- Licence recorded as CC BY.
- The licence permits redistribution, so the abstract is shown in full and the full text is available from the publisher.
Abstract
Dehydrogenation of anhydrous methanol is of great importance, given its ubiquity as an intermediate for the production of a large number of industrial chemicals. Since dehydrogenation of methanol is an endothermic reaction, heterogeneous or homogeneous precious-metal-based catalysts and high temperatures are usually required for this reaction to proceed. Here we report the photochemical dehydrogenation of anhydrous methanol at room temperature catalysed by o-aminophenol (apH2), o-aminophenolate (apH(-)) and the non-precious metal complex trans-[Fe(II)(apH)2(MeOH)2]. Under excitation at 289±10 nm and in the absence of additional photosensitizers, these photocatalysts generate hydrogen and formaldehyde from anhydrous methanol with external quantum yields of 2.9±0.15%, 3.7±0.19% and 4.8±0.24%, respectively, which are the highest values reported so far to the best of our knowledge. Mechanistic investigations reveal that the photo-induced formation of hydrogen radicals triggers the reaction.