Acceptorless Photocatalytic Dehydrogenation of Furfuryl Alcohol (FOL) to Furfural (FAL) and Furoic Acid (FA) over Ti C T /CdS under Visible Light.

Acceptorless photocatalytic dehydrogenation is not only a promising alternative to photocatalytic water splitting for hydrogen generation but also provides a green and sustainable strategy for the synthesis of value-added organic compounds. In this work, Ti C T /CdS nanocomposites were obtained by self-assembly of hexagonal CdS in the presence of preformed Ti C T nanosheets, which serves as a photocatalyst for acceptorless dehydrogenation of biomass-derived furfuryl alcohol (FOL) to furfural (FAL) and furoic acid (FA) in neutral and alkaline medium respectively, with simultaneous generation of stoichiometric hydrogen under visible light. Ti C T MXene acts as an efficient cocatalyst for the photocatalytic dehydrogenation of FOL over CdS, with an optimum performance achieved over 0.50 wt% Ti C T /CdS nanocomposite. This study provides an economic and sustainable strategy for the simultaneous valorization of biomass-derived FOL to produce FAL and FA as well as the production of clean energy hydrogen under mild condition based on noble metal-free semiconductor-based photocatalysts.