Multifunctional oxygen vacancies in WO3–x for catalytic alkylation of C–H by alcohols under red-light

Abstract Surface reaction kinetics and light absorption properties of a photocatalyst are essential demands for efficiently solar to chemical energy converting. In this study, plasmonic WO3–x was firstly applied to photocatalytic alkylation of arenes under red light irradiation. The oxygen vacancies, both on the surface and in the bulk of WO3–x, allow abundant free electrons to increase carrier densities and support its LSPR using low energy photons. The surface oxygen vacancies have more functions: they not only release surface tungsten sites which ensure the chemisorption of alcohols due to the coordianation ability but also promote the activation of alcohols via an efficient transport of the holes on the neighbouring O sites to chemisorption alcohol species. In brief, the bulk oxygen vacancies provide abundant charges and the surface vacancies promote the bond adsorption and activation abilities, which ensure the high efficiency of photocatalytic alkylation of C–H.