Green Photocatalytic Oxidation of Benzyl Alcohol over Noble-Metal-Modified H2Ti3O7 Nanowires

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One-dimensional H 2 Ti 3 O 7 nanowires (NWs) supported by Au, Ag, and Pd monometallic nanoparticles (NPs) and Au–Pd bimetallic NPs were prepared and used for photochemical benzyl alcohol oxidation. Techniques, such as XRD, TEM, XPS, N 2 physisorption, and diffuse reflectance ultraviolet–visible (DRUV–vis), were used to characterize the obtained catalysts. These results showed that the Pd/H 2 Ti 3 O 7 NWs catalyst under light irradiation displayed an enhanced photocatalytic performance, nearly 2.6 times higher than that for the catalyst without irradiation and about 1.5 times higher than that for Pd/TiO 2 (P25) with irradiation. The enhanced benzyl alcohol oxidation activity for Pd/H 2 Ti 3 O 7 NWs might be due to the favorable synergetic effect between Pd and H 2 Ti 3 O 7 NWs. Particularly, highly dispersed Pd NPs with about 10.2 nm on H 2 Ti 3 O 7 NWs can promoted the light harvesting ability. The well-matched contact boundary between H 2 Ti 3 O 7 NWs and Pd NPs might promote separation for the photoinduced electron and hole pairs. After 5 recycle utilization cycles, there was no evident decline in activity and selectivity for the Pd/H 2 Ti 3 O 7 NWs catalyst, which still maintained its original structure of H 2 Ti 3 O 7 NWs. The current study provides a potential application in the green and highly efficient photocatalytic synthesis of other organic compounds and other environmental applications.