CuWO4 as a photocatalyst for room temperature aerobic benzylamine oxidation

The aerobic photochemical oxidation of benzylamine was carried out on the ternary oxides CuWO4 and BiVO4 as a test proton-coupled-electron-transfer reaction in acetonitrile. Both oxides give the coupled imine product, N-benzylidenebenzylamine, in near quantitative (98-99%) yield, with rate constants of 0.34 h(-1) g(-1) and 0.70 h(-1) g(-1) for CuWO4 and BiVO4, respectively.