Selective functionalization of aromatic ring through C-C bond formation by photocatalysis

芳环的官能化反应通常是在苛刻的条件下通过多步进行的，化学品消耗和排放量大。这促使我们开发新的和环境开始简单的化学过程，可以在温和的条件下操作。 在这项研究中，我们成功地发现，钯负载的氧化钛光催化剂可以促进苯和乙腈的简单反应，通过独特的碳-碳键形成生成苯乙腈和氢气。我们还发现，光催化剂作为一个杂化催化剂，其中负载的钯纳米粒子不仅作为一个还原位的氢的形成（光催化剂的助催化剂），但也催化剂，直接活化苯分子。

Functionalization of aromatic ring are usually carried out under sever condition via multistep with large consumption and emission of chemicals. This motivates us to develop novel and environmentally-begin simple chemical processes that can be operated under mild condition. In this study, we successfully found that a palladium loaded titanium oxide photocatalyst could promote a simple reaction from benzene and acetonitrile to produce benzyl cyanide and hydrogen through a unique carbon-carbon bond formation. We also found that the photocatalyst functioned as a hybridized catalyst where the loaded palladium nano-particle acted as not only a reduction sites for hydrogen formation (cocatalyst of photocatalyst) but also a catalyst to directly activate benzene molecule.