Configuration Effect of Plasmonic Vanadium–Titanium Solid Solutions for Photo-oxidation of Benzyl Alcohol
Xia Gong, Quanquan Shi, Muhammad Khalid, Xinrui Gu, Jinmei Li, Liangliang Xu, Brock Lumbers, Gao Li
Abstract
Numerous vanadium–titania composites have drawn significant interest as efficient photocatalysts for the photocatalytic oxidation of alcohols into valuable aldehydes or C–C coupling compound intermediates. In this comparative study, the photocatalytic potential of two conformations of vanadium–titania catalysts was analyzed, including a vanadium–titania solid solution of VTiO x and vanadium oxide supported on titania VO x /TiO 2 . The distinct structural interfaces among the components of these catalysts resulted in notably divergent catalytic performances. The VTiO x catalyst is superior to the corresponding supported VO x /TiO 2 catalysts in the photo-oxidation of benzyl alcohol. The vanadium incorporated into the titania lattice influences surface oxygen vacancy defects, examined by a series of technologies, thus distinctly improving the photocatalytic activity. The experimental phenomena supported with density functional theory (DFT) studies indicate that incorporating V into the TiO 2 lattice can effectively lower the activation energy for the lattice oxygen, thereby improving the generation and repair of oxygen vacancies and thus promoting photo-oxidation.