title: Activating Cobalt Nanoparticles via the Mott-Schottky Effect in Nitrogen-Rich Carbon Shells for Base-Free Aerobic Oxidation of Alcohols to Esters.
abstract: Heterogeneous catalysts of inexpensive and reusable transition-metal are attractive alternatives to homogeneous catalysts; the relatively low activity of transition-metal nanoparticles has become the main hurdle for their practical applications. Here, the de novo design of a Mott-Schottky-type heterogeneous catalyst is reported to boost the activity of a transition-metal nanocatalyst through electron transfer at the metal/nitrogen-doped carbon interface. The Mott-Schottky catalyst of nitrogen-rich carbon-coated cobalt nanoparticles (Co@NC) was prepared through direct polycondensation of simple organic molecules and inorganic metal salts in the presence of g-C3N4powder. The Co@NC with controllable nitrogen content and thus tunable Fermi energy and catalytic activity exhibited a high turnover frequency (TOF) value (8.12 mol methyl benzoate mol-1Co h-1) for the direct, base-free, aerobic oxidation of benzyl alcohols to methyl benzoate; this TOF is 30-fold higher than those of the state-of-the-art transition-metal-based nanocatalysts reported in the literature. The presented efficient Mott-Schottky catalyst can trigger the synthesis of a series of alkyl esters and even diesters in high yields.
authors.affiliation: School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University , Shanghai 200240, P. R. China.
authors.forename: Hui
authors.identifier: 0000-0002-2257-4342
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Su
authors.affiliation: School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University , Shanghai 200240, P. R. China.
authors.forename: Ke-Xin
authors.initials: KX
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University , Shanghai 200240, P. R. China.
authors.forename: Bing
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University , Shanghai 200240, P. R. China.
authors.forename: Hong-Hui
authors.initials: HH
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University , Shanghai 200240, P. R. China.
authors.forename: Qiu-Ying
authors.initials: QY
authors.lastname: Yu
authors.affiliation: School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University , Shanghai 200240, P. R. China.
authors.forename: Xin-Hao
authors.initials: XH
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Department of Colloid Chemistry, Max-Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces , Wissenschaftspark Golm, 14424 Potsdam, Germany.
authors.forename: Markus
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Antonietti
authors.affiliation: School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University , Shanghai 200240, P. R. China.
authors.forename: Jie-Sheng
authors.initials: JS
authors.lastname: Chen