Photocatalytic Oxidation of 5‐Hydroxymethylfurfural Over Interfacial‐Enhanced Ag/TiO<sub>2</sub> Under Visible Light Irradiation
Weizi Zhang, Xinxin Li, Shaoru Liu, Jianhao Qiu, Jiahuan An, Jianfeng Yao, Songlin Zuo, Bo Zhang, Haian Xia, Changzhi Li
Abstract
Abstract Photocatalytic conversion of biomass‐derived 5‐hydroxyfurfural (HMF) to value‐added 5‐hydroxymethyl‐2‐furancarboxylic acid (HMFCA) is an environmentally friendly process. Here, Ag nanoparticle (NP) supported on TiO 2 (Ag/TiO 2 ) materials with different interfacial structures were fabricated via incipient wetness impregnation. In the photocatalytic oxidation of 5‐HMF to HMFCA, low‐temperature reduction (473 K) on Ag/TiO 2 could improve the photoinduced charge separation efficiency and promote the reaction due to the “enhanced” localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) effects achieved through strong metal–support interaction (SMSI). In particular, 2.5 % Ag/TiO 2 ‐LTR exhibited superior performance with an HMFCA selectivity of up to 96.7 % under visible‐light illumination. In contrast, the photocatalytic efficiency was greatly reduced when the reduction temperature increased to 773 K because of the encapsulation of Ag NPs by a thicker TiO x overlay, which significantly weakened visible‐light harvesting. Overall, these findings offer an efficient methodology for designing interfacial enhanced plasmonic photocatalysts for the valorization of biomass.