Hossein Ghafuri - Catalysts and Organic Synthesis Research Laboratory, Department of Chemistry, Iran University of Science and Technology, Tehran, Iran
Mina Ataeifar - Catalysts and Organic Synthesis Research Laboratory, Department of Chemistry, Iran University of Science and Technology, Tehran, Iran
Mostafa M Ghafori Gorab - Catalysts and Organic Synthesis Research Laboratory, Department of Chemistry, Iran University of Science and Technology, Tehran, Iran

The oxidation of the alcohols to their corresponding carbonyls represent one of the most important challenge in both fundamental research and industrial applications. Different strategies are used for this functional group conversion. This transformation usually requires inorganic or organic oxidants in stoichiometric amounts. Consequently, large amounts of the toxic wastes are produced, which goes against the principles of the green chemistry. Photocatalytic oxidation reactions attract scientist’s interest because they can be conducted under mild conditions, using nontoxic materials and have economic and environmental advantages. Graphite carbon nitride (g-C3N4) photocatalyst, which use clean solar energy to oxidation pollutants and convert the solar energy directly into chemical energy. This catalyst has advantages such as thermal stability, hardness, wear resistance and high surface area. In this study, g-C3N4-Fe3O4 was synthesized to achieve a heterogeneous magnetic photocatalyst that could be easily separated by a magnet. Also eosin Y color was added to the catalyst as a sensitizer to effectively increase photocatalytic function in oxidation reactions. This is a highly chemoselective visible light mediated strategy has been developed for oxidation of alcohols. The method remove use of the toxic metal catalysts and high energy light source. These reactions can be carried out using low-pressure O2 or air at room temperature under irradiation of the LED lamps. The selective oxidation of the alcohols to aldehydes or acids is very difficult to accomplish when the oxidant is molecular oxygen and the reaction is carried out under ambient conditions. To solve these problems, visible light photocatalyst was used. According to the obtained results in this study, oxidation process was carried out after 2 hours under these optimized conditions and the carbonyl group was observed in IR spectrum.

Graphitized Carbon Nitride; Eosin Y; Oxidation; Sensitization; Photocatalyst