State-of-the-art progress in the selective photo-oxidation of alcohols

Photocatalytic oxidation of alcohols has received more and more attention in recent years following the numerous studies on the degradation of pollutants, hydrogen evolution, and CO2 reduction by photocatalysis. Instead of the total oxidation of organics in the degradation process, the photo-oxidation of alcohols aims at the selective conversion of alcohols to produce carbonyl/acid compounds. Promising results have been achieved in designing the catalysts and reaction system, as well as in the mechanistic investigations in the past few years. This review summarizes the state-of-the-art progress in the photo-oxidation of alcohols, including the development of photocatalysts and cocatalysts, reaction conditions including the solvent and the atmosphere, and the exploration of mechanisms with scavengers experiment, electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) and diffuse reflectance infrared Fourier transform (DRIFT) spectroscopy. The challenges and outlook for the further research in this field are also discussed.