New insight into highly efficient CSA@g‐C3N4 for photocatalytic oxidation of benzyl alcohol and thioanisole: NAEDS as a promoter of photoactivity under blue LED irradiation

Abstract

AbstractAn open new perspective has been established toward synthesizing eco‐friendly CSA@g‐C3N4 employing surface engineering. The carbon nitride modified through camphorsulfonic acid was designed and developed in a category of the new generation of photocatalysts for the oxidation of benzyl alcohol and thioanisole in the existence of a natural deep eutectic solvent (NADES). In comparison with pure g‐C3N4, not only does CSA@g‐C3N4 exhibit an extraordinarily higher ability for harvesting visible light stemming from declining the recombination rate of electrons/holes dependent on PL results but it also reveals notable photocatalytic oxidation capability in the transformation of alcohols as well as thiols into relevant compounds. In addition, non‐metal compound (CSA) incorporation would result in considerably diminishing the energy band gap value from 2.8 to 2.28 eV to escalate the visible‐light absorption of g‐C3N4. While the conventional consensus implies that inherent properties of photocatalysts bring on high photoactivity, this study indicates that deploying choline chloride–urea deep eutectic solvent as an external factor plays the role of photoactivity accelerator. Furthermore, readily recycling and reusability can be achieved for the photocatalytic setup of CSA@g‐C3N4 ascribed to its heterogeneous nature with no drop in the photoactivity.