Photocatalytic Approaches for Sustainable Olefin Transfer Hydrogenation and Semihydrogenation of Alkynes Using Natural Sunlight

Abstract

A sustainable, solar energy-driven method for olefin hydrogenation and semihydrogenation of alkynes is presented. The approach uses a Pd nanoparticle-decorated semiconductor heterojunction photocatalyst that drives hydrogenation using renewable ethanol and sunlight for energy. The catalyst hydrogenates both terminal and internal double bonds, including activated and unactivated species, and preferentially hydrogenates alkynes over alkenes. This system represents a platform for transitioning critical catalytic processes toward sustainable approaches.

Enrichment of Polarized Alkynes over Negatively Charged Pt for Efficient Electrocatalytic Semihydrogenation

“…We thus doubly checked the possibility of the effect of charge density on the step from C 8 H 8 * to C 8 H 9 * (Figure a) as the key step to promote selectivity. The optimized Pt//W 2 C-7.4 catalyst provided a high turnover frequency (TOF) value of 310 h –1 (Figure d), significantly surpassing the reported highest TOF values (49 h –1 ) of the benchmark catalysts in the literature, including electrocatalysts, ,,,− photocatalysts, − and thermal reaction systems − with high selectivity to alkenes using water as the green hydrogen source (Table S3). The remarkable electrocatalytic activity advantages, more than 6-fold, illustrate the excellent availability of the negatively charged Pt metals within the Pt//W 2 C dual-junction systems for real uses in electrochemical synthesis reactors.…”