Mild Deoxygenation of Sulfoxides over Plasmonic Molybdenum Oxide Hybrid with Dramatic Activity Enhancement under Visible Light

Harvesting solar light to boost commercially important organic synthesis still remains a challenge. Coupling of conventional noble metal catalysts with plasmonic oxide materials which exhibit intense plasmon absorption in the visible light region is a promising option for efficient solar energy utilization in catalysis. Herein, we for the first time demonstrate that plasmonic hydrogen molybdenum bronze coupled with Pt nanoparticles (Pt/HxMoO3-y) shows a high catalytic performance in the deoxygenation of sulfoxides with 1 atm of H-2 at room temperature, with dramatic activity enhancement under visible light irradiation relative to dark conditions. The plasmonic molybdenum oxide hybrids with strong plasmon resonance peaks pinning at around 556 nm are obtained via a facile H-spillover process. Pt/HxMoO3-y hybrid provides excellent selectivity for the deoxygenation of various sulfoxides as well as pyridine N-oxides, in which drastically improved catalytic efficiencies are obtained under the irradiation of visible light. Comprehensive analyses reveal that oxygen vacancies massively introduced via a H-spillover process are the main active sites, and the reversible redox property of Mo atoms and strong plasmonic absorption play key roles in this reaction. The catalytic system works under extremely mild conditions and can boost the reaction by the assistance of visible light, offering an ultimately greener protocol to produce sulfides from sulfoxides. Our findings may open up a new strategy for designing plasmon-based catalytic systems that can harness visible light efficiently.