Immobilization of bismuth oxychloride on cellulose nanocrystal for photocatalytic sulfonylation of arylacetylenic acids with sodium arylsulfinates under visible light

As a promising semiconductor photocatalyst, BiOCl has been widely used in the field of environmental protection. However, due to its weak ability to absorb visible light, the application of BiOCl in other important photocatalytic fields has been significantly limited, such as organic syn-thesis. In this work, a facile method was used to prepare a highly efficient heterogeneous nano-photocatalyst BiOCl/cellulose nanocrystal (CNC). Subsequently, the BiOCl/CNC was verified by XPS, ESR, BET and other characterization methods. The results show that not only the strong interaction between BiOCl and CNC increases the visible light absorption intensity of the compos-ite, but also the combination of BiOCl and CNC makes the specific area of the catalyst more than twofold. In addition, a large number of hydroxyl groups contained in CNC can be combined with the BAO bond in BiOCl through hydrogen bonds, forming abundant oxygen vacancies on BiOCl/ CNC. Excitedly, these changes enable BiOCl/CNC to exhibit excellent photocatalytic performance and regeneration performance in the sulfonation reaction of arylacetylene acid and sodium arylsulfinate, with a yield of up to 96%. This work represents a step towards a low-cost, environmentally friendly composite of cellulose and BiOCl, which will provide useful enlightenment for future exploration in related fields. (c) 2022 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier B.V. on behalf of King Saud University.

Automated summary

In this work, a highly efficient heterogeneous nano-photocatalyst BiOCl/CNC was successfully prepared using a facile method. The strong interaction between BiOCl and CNC increased the visible light absorption intensity of the composite, and the combination of BiOCl and CNC resulted in a more than twofold increase in the specific area of the catalyst. Excitedly, BiOCl/CNC exhibited excellent photocatalytic performance and regeneration performance, which provides useful enlightenment for future exploration in related fields.