Efficient visible light photocatalytic performance of bismuth trioxide/titanium dioxide composite for selective conversion of glucose to arabinose and formic acid

The photocatalytic valorization of glucose has attracted more and more attention for producing value-added chemicals. Herein, value-added chemicals like arabinose and formic acid were obtained by selective photocatalytic oxidation of glucose irradiated with visible light, which was realized using Bi 2 O 3 /TiO 2 composite as the photocatalyst and atmospheric O 2 as the oxidant in water. It was found that the photocatalytic performance of Bi 2 O 3 /TiO 2 composite in the glucose oxidation was obviously superior to that of pure Bi 2 O 3 and pure TiO 2 , the significantly enhanced photocatalytic efficiency was mainly attributed to the promotion of photogenerated charge separation and adsorption capacity towards glucose. The influences of mass ratio of Bi 2 O 3 to TiO 2 and initial concentration of glucose on the glucose oxidation were further investigated with many details. Additionally, recycling experiments showed that the Bi 2 O 3 /TiO 2 composite exhibited a favorable stability in the photocatalytic process, and the roles of various active species for glucose oxidation were also determined by the active species trapping experiments. This work could provide some valuable viewpoints for producing value-added chemicals from biomass by photocatalysis.