Photocatalytic oxygenation of sulfide using solar light and ingenious GQDs@AQ catalyst: Mechanistic and synthetic investigations

Rahnuma Siddique; Rajesh K Yadav; Satyam Singh; Rehana Shahin; Arun K Dubey; Alok Kumar Singh; Atresh K Singh; Navneet Kumar Gupta; Jin-Ook Baeg; Tae Wu Kim

doi:10.1111/php.13859

Photocatalytic oxygenation of sulfide using solar light and ingenious GQDs@AQ catalyst: Mechanistic and synthetic investigations

Photochem Photobiol. 2023 Sep 22. doi: 10.1111/php.13859. Online ahead of print.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ Department of Chemistry and Environmental Science, Madan Mohan Malaviya University of Technology, Gorakhpur, India.
² Department of Chemistry, Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Gorakhpur University, Gorakhpur, India.
³ Centre for Sustainable Technologies, Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru, India.
⁴ Korea Research Institute of Chemical Technology, Daejeon, South Korea.
⁵ Department of Chemistry, Mokpo National University, Yeongson-ro, Cheonggye-myeon, Muan-gun, South Korea.

PMID: 37740555
DOI: 10.1111/php.13859

Abstract

The combination of excellent electronic properties and thermal stability positions orange-derived graphene quantum dots (GQDs) as promising materials for solar light-based applications. Researchers are actively exploring their potential in fields such as photovoltaics, photocatalysis, optoelectronics, and energy storage. Their abundance, cost-effectiveness, and eco-friendly nature further contribute to their growing relevance in cutting-edge scientific research. Furthermore, only GQDs are not much more effective in the UV-visible region, therefore, required band gap engineering in GQDs material. In this context, we designed GQDs-based light harvesting materials, which is active in UV-visible region. Herein we synthesized GQDs coupled with 2,6-diaminoanthrquninone (AQ), that is, GQDs@AQ light harvesting photocatalyst the first time for the oxidation of sulfide to sulfoxide under visible light. For the integrating reactions of sulfide in aerobic conditions under visible light by GQDs@AQ photocatalyst exhibit utmost higher photocatalytic activity than simple GQDs due to low molar extinction coefficient and slow recombination charges. The use of GQDs@AQ light harvesting photocatalyst, showed the excellent organic transformation efficiency of sulfide to sulfoxide with excellent yield (94%). The high efficiency and excellent yield of 94% indicate the effectiveness of GQDs@AQ as a photocatalyst for these specific organic transformations.

Keywords: GQDs; GQDs@AQ photocatalyst; Methyl p-tolyl sulfide; oxygenation reaction; solar light.