Abstract
Photocatalytic oxidation of cyclohexanol (1), cyclopentanol (2), and cycloheptanol (3) was investigated by using titanium dioxide (Degussa P25) as a semiconductor photocatalyst. The effect of different operational parameters such as the catalyst, the solvent, time, and oxidant was also studied. Results showed a high percentage of conversion for 1 -3 (71.6%, 94.2%, and 100%, resp.) and that the primary photocatalytic oxidation products are the corresponding cycloalkanones (4 -6). They were formed with high selectivity (> 85%). Several other products were also identified using GC, GC/MS techniques and authentic samples. The photocatalytic activity is explained by a photoinduced electron transfer mechanism through the formation of electron-hole pair at the surface of the semiconductor particles. A first-order kinetic model was observed for the photocatalytic oxidation of the investigated cycloalkanols. Copyright (C) 2008 Omima S. Mohamed et al.