Single walled carbon nanotubes with encapsulated Pt(II) photocatalyst for the oxidation of sulfides in water

Abstract

A simple one-step synthesis of a heterogeneous photocatalyst based on the encapsulation of the quinolinate-platinum complex 1 in the inner cavity of Single Walled Carbon Nanotubes ([email protected]T) is presented. This strategy generates a robust and stable catalyst for photooxidations performed in water media. [email protected] is characterized spectroscopically and microscopically to have encapsulated a 2.5 % wt. of the unaltered complex. This material, which only contained 0.04 mol% of 1, is able to chemoselectively yield a wide variety of sulfoxides in water in the presence of air under 385 nm irradiation. The catalyst also presents affinity for polyaromatic substrates, increasing the reaction rate as a function of the number of condensed rings, achieving turnover frequencies as high as 8187 h−1. Moreover, the heterogeneous catalyst could be recycled for more than six consecutive reaction runs without losing its catalytic activity or detecting catalyst leaching.