Magnetically Separable Visible Light-Active Ag<sub>0.75</sub>Ni<sub>0.25</sub> Binary Alloy Nanoparticles as a Highly Efficient Photocatalyst for the Selective Oxidative Coupling of Aniline to Azobenzene
Soniya Agarwal, Bidisa Dowara, Sanjeev Kumar, Vinod Kumar, Kalyanjyoti Deori
Abstract
alloy is designed in the nanoscale range resembling a fivefold twinned morphology using water as the solvent. These newly developed alloy nanoparticles (NPs) are employed for the first time as an efficient visible light-active photocatalyst for the oxidative homocoupling of aniline to azobenzene. Our catalytic protocol is highly sustainable for a large number of aniline substrates with a high yield of the product (up to 95%), which might be attributed to the combinational and superior properties achieved on alloy formation in comparison to the monometallic counterparts. High-electron density amines (p-anisidine) display greater photocatalytic proficiency than that of low-electron density amines (4-fluoroaniline). The developed photocatalyst is magnetically well-separable and can be reused for at least five catalytic cycles without appreciable loss in its activity.