In Situ Formation of the Ag/V2O5 Catalyst for High-Flux Production of Alkane by Self-Heating Photocatalytic Fatty Acid Decarboxylation

The metal oxide semiconductor-based photocatalysis using solar energy is one of the most common chemical transformations. However, all of these currently developed treatments suffer from roughly the same embarrassment situation, e.g., aimed products in suspended solution systems permitted at a low-accumulated concentration level. Here, we report an important class of photocatalytic conversion of long-chain fatty acids to Cn–1 n-alkanes over an in situ formed Ag/V2O5 nanocatalyst that can utilize the heat from the photothermal conversion effect to dramatically enhance the Cn–1 alkane output efficiency in a single operation, exemplified by nearly 0.8 M n-heptadecane (for 1 M stearic acid) and an exceptionally high production rate of approximately 340 mmol gcat–1 h–1, far exceeding the conventional photocatalytic concentrations that are usually capped at the mM scale. The success of this strategy stems from the synergistic effect of self-heating and Ag species, which enables the upright long-chain of fatty acids to recline on the Ag/V2O5 surface, resulting in the C–COO– bonds with more strain on one hand, facilitating the easy approach of photoinduced holes to the energy-storing C–COO– bonds and their subsequent reaction, and which allows the transfer and consumption of photoinduced electrons through multiple pathways on the other. Our study not only offers a simple method for manufacturing semiconductor-based nanoparticles but also demonstrates that Ag/V2O5-based photocatalytic decarboxylation rates can be significantly accelerated by a convenient photo-to-heat route.