Photocatalytic Reduction of Nitro Compounds Using TiO2 Photocatalyst by UV and Vis Dye-sensitized Systems

Nitro‐aromatic compounds can be photocatalytically reduced into the corresponding amine‐aromatic compounds using TiO₂ as a photocatalyst in the UV/TiO₂/holes scavenger and Vis/TiO₂/dye‐sensitized systems. In the UV/TiO₂/holes scavenger system, reaction substrate alcohols such as methanol could be used as the holes scavengers, and in the Vis/TiO₂/dye‐sensitized system, substrate alcohols could be oxidized to the corresponding aldehydes with high selectivity. When methanol was used as the holes scavengers and the illumination time was 6 h, 87.2% of p‐nitrotoluene could be photocatalytically reduced into p‐toluidine. In the Vis/TiO₂/dye‐sensitized system, the effect of aromatic alcohols for the photocatalytic reduction of nitrobenzene was better than that of other alcohols. At the same time, aromatic alcohols can be easily oxidized, and the production efficiencies of the corresponding aldehydes were higher than those of other alcohols. The possible reaction mechanisms were also proposed.