Journal of CatalysisPub Date : 2026-02-01Epub Date: 2025-11-06DOI: 10.1016/j.jcat.2025.116541
Xin Tao , Menglu Wang , Xintai Su , Daoping He , Renchun Yang
{"title":"Ga-Cu promoted charge storage and electron transfer on rutile TiO2 nanorod for enhanced solar water splitting","authors":"Xin Tao , Menglu Wang , Xintai Su , Daoping He , Renchun Yang","doi":"10.1016/j.jcat.2025.116541","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jcat.2025.116541","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>To address the insufficient of electron activity and low transfer efficiency in rutile TiO<sub>2</sub>, a highly efficient “charge storage and electron transfer center” was introduced for photohydrogen production. Gallium (Ga) serves as an “electron storage center” that captures and stores photogenerated electrons, while copper (Cu) acts as an “electron transfer center” to facilitate low-barrier electron migration. Furthermore, the co-modification with Ga and Cu optimizes the band structure by shifting the conduction band negatively and reducing the band gap, thereby improving the thermodynamics of proton reduction and enhancing the kinetics of visible-light absorption. As a result, the hydrogen production rate of the synthesized TiO<sub>2</sub>(R)-GaCu catalyst reached 10.33 mmol·h<sup>−1</sup>·g<sup>−</sup>1, which is 25 times higher than that of the pristine TiO<sub>2</sub>(R). This work offers a novel approach for designing highly efficient charge storage and electron transfer centers to improve the thermodynamics of proton reduction in photocatalytic hydrogen evolution.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":346,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Catalysis","volume":"454 ","pages":"Article 116541"},"PeriodicalIF":6.5,"publicationDate":"2026-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145447913","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"化学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Journal of CatalysisPub Date : 2026-02-01Epub Date: 2025-12-16DOI: 10.1016/j.jcat.2025.116643
Jiaxin Liang, Yifei Wei, Yani Ge, Yilin Zhou, Jianhua Liao, Lu Ouyang, Renshi Luo
{"title":"Ir-catalyzed transfer hydrogenation and N-alkylation of N-heteroarenes with carboxylic acids","authors":"Jiaxin Liang, Yifei Wei, Yani Ge, Yilin Zhou, Jianhua Liao, Lu Ouyang, Renshi Luo","doi":"10.1016/j.jcat.2025.116643","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jcat.2025.116643","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Given the importance of the <em>N</em>-heterocyclics and carboxylic acids, methods for editing these skeletons would be specifically valuable in drug discovery. In this work, we report a tandem Ir-catalyzed transfer hydrogenation and <em>N-</em>alkylation of <em>N</em>-heteroarenes with carboxylic acids as alkylated sources, which efficiently produces a series of <em>N</em>-alkylated tetrahydroquinolines and heterocycles in moderate to excellent yields (up to 96%) under air conditions. A wide range of carboxylic acids, including complex drug molecules and natural products, can be served as alkylated sources and incorporated into <em>N</em>-heteroarenes to afford a variety of useful structure motifs (66 examples). The successful gram-scale transformation, as well as diversification of natural molecules and drugs further highlight the practicality and robustness of this strategy, holding broad potential for the synthesis of bioactive <em>N</em>-alkylated heterocyclics from renewable feedstock.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":346,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Catalysis","volume":"454 ","pages":"Article 116643"},"PeriodicalIF":6.5,"publicationDate":"2026-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145787243","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"化学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"A robust Zr/Hf catalytic system for efficient and highly enantioselective α-hydroxylation of β-keto carbonyls and amides: mechanistic and DFT studies","authors":"Cunfei Ma, Kun Tang, Jingnan Zhao, Yakun Wang, Yufeng Wu, Guofeng Zhao, Huinan Sun, Qilei Liu, Qingwei Meng","doi":"10.1016/j.jcat.2025.116642","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jcat.2025.116642","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>An efficient zirconium/hafnium catalytic system with low loading has been developed for the enantioselective α-hydroxylation of a series of substrates, including five-membered cyclic β-indanone esters, β-keto amides, and challenging 1-indanone-derived β-keto esters, delivering the products in high yields (up to 99%) with excellent enantioselectivities (up to 99% ee). The system also exhibits strong tolerance to variations in temperature and solvent, which ensures high efficiency and a broad substrate scope (42 examples). Its synthetic utility was demonstrated through gram-scale reactions and subsequent derivatization of product 2a. Mechanistic studies and DFT calculations revealed that C–H···π interactions between the substrate and the newly developed Salan ligand, along with π–π stacking with cumene hydroperoxide (CHP), are key to enantiocontrol.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":346,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Catalysis","volume":"454 ","pages":"Article 116642"},"PeriodicalIF":6.5,"publicationDate":"2026-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145787245","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"化学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The influence of the organic residue and the solvent in the Schlenk equilibrium for Grignard reagents in THF. A molecular dynamics study with machine learning potentials","authors":"Marco Bortoli , Sigbjørn Løland Bore , Odile Eisenstein , Michele Cascella","doi":"10.1016/j.jcat.2025.116619","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jcat.2025.116619","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The Schlenk equilibrium is an essential characteristic of the Grignard reagents. However, its quantitative aspects remain poorly understood. In this work, we perform molecular dynamics simulations to characterise how the Schlenk reaction is affected by varying the alkyl R groups (Me, Et, <em>i</em>-Pr, <em>t</em>-Bu). For each R group, the reactivity profiles were obtained through enhanced sampling on fully solvated dinuclear species, leveraging a newly developed machine learning potential trained on ab initio data. While the topologies of the Helmholtz energy maps are qualitatively similar, the energy ranges vary significantly with the R groups. Bulkier R groups disfavour higher solvation of the magnesium centre, with direct implications for the activation and mechanism of the Schlenk exchange. With respect to dichloro-bridged species, the concentrations of monochloro-bridged and separated species increase with the size of R and the degree of solvation. The energy barrier for ligand exchange increases with the size of R, and it is particularly noticeable for R = <em>t</em>-Bu, in agreement with experimental data. As excess solvation of one of the magnesium centres is associated with the most important reaction pathways, it can be deduced that early formation of monochloro-bridged species favours the Cl/R exchange, especially for large R groups. The formation of these species is favoured by higher Mg solvation for small R groups, and by the steric volume of R itself for large R, pointing at a constructive effect of the solvent and R promoting Cl/R exchange. Our study shows that a full characterisation of the speciation of Grignard reagents in solution is possible at reasonable computational costs with machine-learning potentials.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":346,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Catalysis","volume":"454 ","pages":"Article 116619"},"PeriodicalIF":6.5,"publicationDate":"2026-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145705074","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"化学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Journal of CatalysisPub Date : 2026-02-01Epub Date: 2025-12-05DOI: 10.1016/j.jcat.2025.116616
Fengyi Wang, Hong Li, Shenshen Zhang, Bin Duan, Niu Huang, Yong Zheng, Binbin Jia, Siran Xu, Wei Liu, Liqun Ye
{"title":"Protonation-enhanced H2O2 electrosynthesis: high-selectivity and high-yield with a noble-metal-free CTF/BHN composite","authors":"Fengyi Wang, Hong Li, Shenshen Zhang, Bin Duan, Niu Huang, Yong Zheng, Binbin Jia, Siran Xu, Wei Liu, Liqun Ye","doi":"10.1016/j.jcat.2025.116616","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jcat.2025.116616","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The development of non-noble metal catalysts with high activity and selectivity is critical for the electrocatalytic production of hydrogen peroxide (H<sub>2</sub>O<sub>2</sub>). Herein, we report a composite catalyst (CTF/BHN) fabricated by chelating a basic bismuth salt (BHN) with a bipyridine-containing covalent triazine framework (CTF), forming strong Bi-bipyridine bonds at the interface. This catalyst exhibits exceptional H<sub>2</sub>O<sub>2</sub> selectivity (92–98 %) over a wide potential range (0.3–0.62 V vs. RHE). In H-type cell tests, it achieves a Faraday efficiency of 88.9 % at 20 mA cm<sup>−2</sup>, with a high H<sub>2</sub>O<sub>2</sub> production rate of 1.65 mol g<sup>−1</sup>h<sup>−1</sup>, and maintains stable performance for 42 h. In-situ attenuated total reflection surface-enhanced infrared absorption spectroscopy (ATR-SEIRAS) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) reveal that the superior performance stems from synergistic interfacial effects: electron transfer from BHN to CTF enhances charge transport, while polarized interfaces promote water dissociation and protonation of pyridine groups in CTF to form Py*H intermediates. Py*H acts as a proton relay, facilitating the protonation of adsorbed *O<sub>2</sub> to *OOH at Bi active sites. Concurrently, the enhanced interaction between *OOH and the catalyst surface (evidenced by the blue-shifted *OOH peak) stabilizes *OOH and suppresses its dissociation, thereby driving the 2e<sup>−</sup> ORR pathway for efficient H<sub>2</sub>O<sub>2</sub> generation.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":346,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Catalysis","volume":"454 ","pages":"Article 116616"},"PeriodicalIF":6.5,"publicationDate":"2026-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145690082","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"化学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Journal of CatalysisPub Date : 2026-02-01Epub Date: 2025-12-02DOI: 10.1016/j.jcat.2025.116612
Yuanyuan Zhu , Yuyong Zhang , Lina Ma , Zhaozhan Wang , Yong Yang
{"title":"Selective 1,3-butadiene dimerization to 1,3,7-octatriene catalyzed by a heterogeneous Pd catalyst supported on a sterically encumbered NHC polymer","authors":"Yuanyuan Zhu , Yuyong Zhang , Lina Ma , Zhaozhan Wang , Yong Yang","doi":"10.1016/j.jcat.2025.116612","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jcat.2025.116612","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>As a significant chemical feedstock, 1,3,7-octatriene (OCT) has so far been synthesized mainly via homogeneous Pd catalyst systems, with no successful application of heterogeneous catalysts reported to date. To overcome the challenges associated with catalyst separation/recovery and the high cost of noble-metal, in this study, we developed a novel heterogeneous catalytic system. Using Scholl coupling method, sterically hindered N-heterocyclic carbene (NHC) ligand was incorporated into a hypercrosslinked polymer network, which served simultaneously as both the catalyst support and the solid ligand in the Pd-catalyzed dimerization of 1,3-butadiene with isopropanol. The heterogenous Pd-supported hypercrosslinked polymer catalyst (denoted as Pd@HCP-NHC-B) was formed in situ during the reaction and demonstrated outstanding catalytic activity. Under optimized conditions, complete conversion of 1,3-butadiene was achieved with a selectivity of up to 93.5% toward the target product OCT, which is comparable to that its homogeneous counterpart. Importantly, the catalyst could be easily separated from the reaction mixture and maintained consistent activity and selectivity over at least 10 consecutive cycles. Characterization studies confirmed that the morphology of the catalyst and the local coordination environment of the metal centers remained unchanged after agglomeration, demonstrating the high stability of the catalyst. This breakthrough paves the way for scalable and industrially feasible heterogeneous catalysts in 1,3-butadiene dimerization.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":346,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Catalysis","volume":"454 ","pages":"Article 116612"},"PeriodicalIF":6.5,"publicationDate":"2026-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145658033","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"化学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Journal of CatalysisPub Date : 2026-02-01Epub Date: 2025-12-01DOI: 10.1016/j.jcat.2025.116603
Lihua Ma , Xiao-Liang Ma , Mei Wang , Xiao-Di Li , Ming-Huan Wang , Song Guo , Jin-Zhong Wang , Xian-Shun Zeng , Mingjian Yuan , Zhi-Ming Zhang
{"title":"A promising strategy to construct strong sensitizing iridium(III) complexes via energy transfer sensitization for continuous gram-level photosynthesis","authors":"Lihua Ma , Xiao-Liang Ma , Mei Wang , Xiao-Di Li , Ming-Huan Wang , Song Guo , Jin-Zhong Wang , Xian-Shun Zeng , Mingjian Yuan , Zhi-Ming Zhang","doi":"10.1016/j.jcat.2025.116603","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jcat.2025.116603","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Rational construction of strong sensitizing transition complexes is crucial for efficient artificial photosynthesis. Herein, we reported a promising strategy to develop strong sensitizing Ir(III) complexes (<strong>Ir-3</strong> and <strong>Ir-4</strong>) by coupling visible-light-absorbing antennas with 1,8-naphthalenebenzimidizole based Ir(III) molecular platform via energy transfer sensitization. Impressively, the rate for photo-oxidation of dihydroxynaphthalene with <strong>Ir-4</strong> can reach 202.0 × 10<sup>−3</sup> min<sup>−1</sup>, over 26 times faster than that with the typical [Ir(ppy)<sub>2</sub>(bpy)]<sup>+</sup>. Furthermore, Ir-4 exhibits an outstanding catalytic activity in the photo-oxidative coupling of benzylamines with a yield of 92.6 %, over 9 times higher than that with [Ir(ppy)<sub>2</sub>(bpy)]<sup>+</sup>. Systematical investigations reveal that the outstanding catalytic ability of <strong>Ir-4</strong> could be attributed to its strong visible absorption, long-excited state lifetime, dual sensitizing sites and perfect multiple synergism among components. Notably, such a novel sensitizer was firstly assembled with SiO<sub>2</sub> to fabricate Ir-4@SiO<sub>2</sub> composites in bulk for continuous gram-level photosynthesis. These findings pave the way to rationally develop strong visible-light-absorbing multicomponent arrays on molecular level for large scale solar energy utilization.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":346,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Catalysis","volume":"454 ","pages":"Article 116603"},"PeriodicalIF":6.5,"publicationDate":"2026-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145651166","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"化学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Journal of CatalysisPub Date : 2026-02-01Epub Date: 2025-12-09DOI: 10.1016/j.jcat.2025.116622
Ling Li , Zhenxuan Zhang , Yuhan Peng , Bowen Zhang , Hao Sun , Zhenzhan Zhang , Qiwen Sun , Yanfei Xu , Mingyue Ding
{"title":"Constructing Mn-encapsulated Fischer–Tropsch synthesis catalyst to boost the production of heavy olefins from syngas","authors":"Ling Li , Zhenxuan Zhang , Yuhan Peng , Bowen Zhang , Hao Sun , Zhenzhan Zhang , Qiwen Sun , Yanfei Xu , Mingyue Ding","doi":"10.1016/j.jcat.2025.116622","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jcat.2025.116622","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Heavy olefins (C<sub>5+</sub> olefins) serve as crucial feedstocks for fine chemical industry and are generally produced via the oligomerization of light olefins, which requires severe reaction conditions and relies on limited petroleum resources. Converting syngas derived from renewable biomass or abundant coal into olefins presents a promising alternative route. However, achieving high selectivity toward heavy olefins during syngas conversion remains challenging, with typical selectivity less than 60 %. Herein, we designed a Mn-encapsulated iron-based catalyst, in which Mn acted as both electronic and structural promoter. On one hand, Mn modulated the electronic structure of iron species, which promoted the formation of carbon-rich Fe<sub>2</sub>C phase and suppressed hydrogenation activity, thereby improving both catalytic activity and olefins selectivity. On the other hand, this Mn-encapsulated structure enhanced the C–C coupling process, facilitating the chain growth of hydrocarbons. As a result, a high selectivity of 69.0 % for heavy olefins was achieved at mild reaction temperature of 260 °C.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":346,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Catalysis","volume":"454 ","pages":"Article 116622"},"PeriodicalIF":6.5,"publicationDate":"2026-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145718431","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"化学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Journal of CatalysisPub Date : 2026-02-01Epub Date: 2025-12-04DOI: 10.1016/j.jcat.2025.116614
Hui Fan , Jia-Ao Huang , Xia-Guang Zhang , Yan-Bo Hua , Yuan-Hao Li , Kun Jiang , Hong Li , Tian-Wen Jiang , Wen-Bin Cai
{"title":"Electronic and geometric structure engineered copper sites enhance *CO and *OH co-adsorption for CO2 electroreduction to C2+ products","authors":"Hui Fan , Jia-Ao Huang , Xia-Guang Zhang , Yan-Bo Hua , Yuan-Hao Li , Kun Jiang , Hong Li , Tian-Wen Jiang , Wen-Bin Cai","doi":"10.1016/j.jcat.2025.116614","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jcat.2025.116614","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Oxide-derived copper (OD-Cu) is one of the state-of-the-art catalysts for electrochemical carbon dioxide reduction reaction (CO<sub>2</sub>RR) to multi-carbon (C<sub>2+</sub>) products, but it generally suffers from the active site degradations during reconstruction. Herein, we propose an integrative strategy to simultaneously modulate electronic and geometric structure of Cu active sites, i.e., the valence state and coordination environment. By employing a dual-valence Cu (DV-Cu) oxysalt as the precursor, we constructed a reduced DV-Cu (RDV-Cu) catalyst, which features abundant Cu<sup>δ+</sup> and undercoordinated Cu species, representing electronic and geometric structure engineered active sites, respectively. Comprehensive characterizations reveal that, compared to Cu<sub>2</sub>O-derived RCu<sub>2</sub>O, RDV-Cu not only preserves a higher concentration of electronically active Cu<sup>δ+</sup> species but also introduces more geometrically active undercoordinated Cu sites. Benefiting from these structural advantages, RDV-Cu achieves a maximum Faradaic efficiency for C<sub>2+</sub> products of 72.3 % at –1.1 V in an H-cell, and 82.8 % at −400 mA cm<sup>−2</sup> in a flow cell, significantly outperforming RCu<sub>2</sub>O. <em>In situ</em> vibrational spectroscopic studies disclose a high surface coverage of *CO and *OH induced by the Cu<sup>δ+</sup> and undercoordinated in RDV-Cu, which enhances the C–C coupling reaction. This work proposes a new strategy for fabricating high-performance OD-Cu catalysts and reveals a structure-adsorbate-performance relationship for promoting the formation of C<sub>2+</sub> products.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":346,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Catalysis","volume":"454 ","pages":"Article 116614"},"PeriodicalIF":6.5,"publicationDate":"2026-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145674278","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"化学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Journal of CatalysisPub Date : 2026-02-01Epub Date: 2025-12-13DOI: 10.1016/j.jcat.2025.116635
M. Carmen Borrallo-Aniceto , Laura González-Aguilera , Maria Luisa Ferrer , Urbano Díaz , Marta Iglesias , Eva M. Maya
{"title":"Tailoring the structure and photocatalytic properties of [1]benzothieno[3,2-b][1]benzothiophene (BTBT)-based porous organic polymers","authors":"M. Carmen Borrallo-Aniceto , Laura González-Aguilera , Maria Luisa Ferrer , Urbano Díaz , Marta Iglesias , Eva M. Maya","doi":"10.1016/j.jcat.2025.116635","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jcat.2025.116635","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The organic semiconductor [1]benzothieno[3,2-b][1]benzothiophene (BTBT) has been incorporated into porous organic polymers to create heterogeneous photocatalysts with tunable structural and electronic properties. In this study, four BTBT-based polymeric networks, BTBT-HCP, BTBT-CTF, BTBT-CMP, and BTBT-PAF were synthesized using different strategies, including Friedel–Crafts reactions and palladium-catalyzed cross-coupling methods. The resulting materials exhibited distinct thermal and optical properties, with the latter showing a strong correlation with their catalytic performance. All four photocatalysts were evaluated in the photooxidation of aromatic alcohols. Among them, BTBT-CTF, which has direct bonds between the BTBT and triazine units, demonstrated the highest efficiency and was further employed in a one-pot, two-step reaction for the photooxidative synthesis of benzimidazoles. This process combined the initial photooxidation of aromatic alcohols with a subsequent condensation with o-phenylenediamine without isolating the intermediate aldehyde. These results highlight the potential of BTBT-based materials for sustainable photooxidations and light-driven heterocyclic synthesis.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":346,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Catalysis","volume":"454 ","pages":"Article 116635"},"PeriodicalIF":6.5,"publicationDate":"2026-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145731743","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"化学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}