Partial oxidation of aromatic alcohols via TiO2 photocatalysis: the influence of substituent groups on the activity and selectivity

Aromatic alcohols with substituent groups in different positions have been partially oxidised to the corresponding aldehydes in a photocatalytic system in order to investigate the influence of the substituents on reactivity and selectivity to aldehyde. To this aim benzyl alcohol, 2-methoxybenzyl alcohol, 3-methoxybenzyl alcohol, 4-methoxybenzyl alcohol, 2,4-dimethoxybenzyl alcohol, 4-hydroxybenzyl alcohol and 4-hydroxy-3-methoxybenzyl alcohol have been photocatalytically oxidised to their corresponding aldehydes in aqueous TiO2 suspensions under near-UV irradiation. Home-made and commercial rutile TiO2 samples were used as photocatalysts. The catalysts were characterized by XRD, BET, SEM, TEM and TGA measurements. For all the used substrates the main oxidation products were the corresponding aldehydes and CO2. The aromatic alcohols showed selectivity values decreasing with the substituent position on the aromatic ring according the following order: para > ortho > meta. In the presence of two substituent groups, the overall oxidation rate increased while the selectivity decreased. The home-made catalyst generally showed selectivity higher but activity lower than those of the commercial one. The results showed that the reaction rate and selectivity were dependent not only on the catalyst properties such as crystallinity and hydrophilicity but also on the kind and position of the substituent groups of the aromatic alcohols.