Chinese Journal of Catalysis ›› 2020, Vol. 41 ›› Issue (10): 1474-1479.DOI: 10.1016/S1872-2067(20)63582-3

• Communications • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Light-driven activation of carbon-halogen bonds by readily available amines for photocatalytic hydrodehalogenation

Di Menga,b, Qian Zhua,b, Yan Weia,b, Shengli Zhenc, Ran Duana, Chuncheng Chena,b, Wenjing Songa,b, Jincai Zhaoa,b   

  1. a Key Laboratory of Photochemistry, CAS Research/Education Center for Excellence in Molecular Sciences, Institute of Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100190, China;
    b University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China;
    c Beijing GeoEnviron Engineering&Technology, lnc., Beijing, 100095, China
  • Received:2020-01-20 Revised:2020-03-05 Online:2020-10-18 Published:2020-08-15
  • Supported by:
    This work was supported by the National Key R&D Program of China (2018YFA0209302), National Natural Science Foundation of China (21590811, 21677148, 21827809, 21922609), the Key Research Program of Frontier Sciences (QYZDY-SSW-SLH028) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

Abstract: A straightforward protocol using readily available aromatic amines, N,N,N',N'-tetramethyl-p-phenylenediamine or N,N,N',N'-tetramethylbenzidine, as photocatalysts was developed for the efficient hydrodehalogenation of organic halides, such as 4'-bromoacetophenone, polyfluoroarenes, cholorobenzene, and 2,2',4,4'-tetrabromodiphenyl ether(a resistant and persistent organic pollutant). The strongly reducing singlet excited states of the amines enabled diffusion-controlled dissociative electron transfer to effectively cleave carbon-halogen bonds, followed by radical hydrogenation. Diisopropylethylamine served as the terminal electron/proton donor and regenerated the amine sensitizers.

Key words: Carbon-halogen bond activation, Photocatalysis, Halogenated organic pollutants, Reductive dehalogenation, Environmental remediation