Oxygen Vacancy‐Enhanced Selectivity in Aerobic Oxidation of Benzene to Phenol over TiO 2 Photocatalysts

Abstract Photocatalytic oxidation of benzene to phenol using molecular oxygen (O 2 ) is a promising alternative to the traditional cumene process. However, the selectivity toward phenol is often poor due to the ring‐opening reaction induced by the superoxide radical (⋅O 2 − ), which is predominantly produced from the single‐electron reduction of O 2 . Herein, we demonstrate that introducing abundant oxygen vacancies (OVs) on the surface of titanium dioxide (TiO 2 ) facilitates the activation of O 2 through a two‐electron reduction process instead of a single‐electron reduction. This effectively suppresses the generation of ⋅O 2 − , thereby reducing phenol decomposition and significantly enhancing the…

• HE
  Higher Education Discipline Innovation Project

  Award: D16008
• NN
  National Natural Science Foundation of China-Shandong Joint Fund for Marine Science Research Centers

  Award: 22372036, U24A20567, U21A20326, and 21972022