Mechanochemical Synthesis of TiO₂ Nanocomposites as Photocatalysts for Benzyl Alcohol Photo-Oxidation.

TiO₂ (anatase phase) has excellent photocatalytic performance and different methods have been reported to overcome its main limitation of high band gap energy. In this work, TiO₂-magnetically-separable nanocomposites (MAGSNC) photocatalysts with different TiO₂ loading were synthesized using a simple one-pot mechanochemical method. Photocatalysts were characterized by a number of techniques and their photocatalytic activity was tested in the selective oxidation of benzyl alcohol to benzaldehyde. Extension of light absorption into the visible region was achieved upon titania incorporation. Results indicated that the photocatalytic activity increased with TiO₂ loading on the catalysts, with moderate conversion (20%) at high benzaldehyde selectivity (84%) achieved for 5% TiO₂-MAGSNC. These findings pointed out a potential strategy for the valorization of lignocellulosic-based biomass under visible light irradiation using designer photocatalytic nanomaterials.