Visible-light-induced aerobic photocatalytic oxidation of aromatic alcohols to aldehydes over Ni-doped NH2-MIL-125(Ti)

• Development of Ni-doped NH2-MIL-125(Ti) for photocatalysis under visible light.
• Doping of Ni species into NH2-MIL-125(Ti) improves the photocatalytic activity.
• Elucidation on the function of the doped Ni nanoparticles in the photocatalysis.
• The photocatalyst is effective for the selective aerobic oxidation of aromatic alcohols.

The Ni-doped NH2-MIL-125(Ti) catalyst was developed for the photocatalytic aerobic oxidation of aromatic alcohols upon visible light irradiation. The results show that different aromatic alcohols can be effectively transformed to their corresponding aldehydes with almost absolute selectivity using O2 as the oxidant over Ni-doped NH2-MIL-125(Ti) upon visible light irradiation. Compared with the parent catalyst NH2-MIL-125(Ti), Ni-doped NH2-MIL-125(Ti) exhibits a significantly enhanced photocatalytic activity for the selective oxidation of aromatic alcohols. Preliminary studies indicate that the doping of Ni nanoparticles into NH2-MIL-125(Ti) could improve the visible-light harvesting, charge-separation, and electron-transport of the resultant catalyst, leading to the enhanced photocatalytic activity. The current work provides some guidance in the development of MOF-based photocatalysts for organic syntheses.

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