Air activation by a metal-free photocatalyst for “totally-green” hydrocarbon selective oxidation

We show the fabrication and photocatalytic properties of triazine-based carbon nitride (polytriazine imide, PTI). The obtained PTI, with higher crystallinity and a triazine structure unit, is sufficiently characterised by X-ray powder diffraction, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and solid state NMR. We demonstrate that PTI is an efficient photocatalyst for activation in air and water, by which, the total green cyclohexane selective oxidation (5.81% conversion and over 99.9% selectivity to cyclohexanone) can be realized only using air and water without any other oxidants, initiators and solvents.