Au-decorated perylene-embedded amphiphilic mesoporous organosilica nanoreactors for visible-light-driven selective aerobic oxidation of sulfides in water

Amphiphilic nanoreactor enables efficient sulfide oxidation in water. • Perylene units suppress aggregation and improve charge separation. • Up to 97% conversion with high selectivity under visible light. • Au loading boosts charge separation and catalytic activity. • A green strategy for selective oxidation in aqueous systems. Perylene compounds have been widely investigated as organic optoelectronic materials owing to their extended conjugated structures. However, their photocatalytic activity is often limited by aggregation-induced charge recombination. Herein, we developed a novel amphiphilic photoactive nanoreactor, PTB-MSN, via the condensation of silylated 3,4,9,10-perylenetetracarboxylic dianhydride (PTCDA) with 1,4-bis(triethoxysilyl)benzene (BTEB). The resulting nanoreactor effectively suppresses perylene aggregation and enables the selective oxidation of organic sulfides to sulfoxides in aqueous media, exhibiting approximately six-fold higher catalytic performance than the PTCDA monomer. The sulfide conversion showed a BTEB-dependent trend, increasing and then decreasing as the BTEB dosage varied from 0 to 0.6 mL, with 0.2 mL affording the optimal PTB-MSN catalyst. Moreover, Au nanoparticle deposition further enhanced the photocatalytic activity. This work provides a promising strategy for constructing perylene-based photocatalysts for visible-light-driven heterogeneous catalysis. A novel amphiphilic PTCDA-based periodic mesoporous organosilica nanoreactor enables efficient visible-light-driven oxidation of sulfides in water by integrating enhanced substrate adsorption, suppressed perylene aggregation, and promoted charge separation, thereby providing a promising platform for green and selective photocatalytic sulfoxide synthesis. Download: Download high-res image (102KB) Download: Download full-size image