Direct growth of Au nanoparticles on g-C3N4 for photocatalytic selective alcohol oxidations

Direct growth of Au nanoparticles on g-C3N4 has been successfully achieved by a facile in-situ redox reaction between oxidative Au precursor and reductive gases produced via urea decomposition for the first time, which exhibits the highly enhanced activity for selective alcohol oxidations in aqueous medium under visible-light irradiation due to the synergetic effects of the increased surface area, the enhanced light-harvesting ability and the improved separation efficiency of photocharges. Meanwhile, this photocatalyst also demonstrates strong stability, showing good potential in practical applications. This work can deliver some new insights to develop highly active photocatalysts for organic transformation reactions.