CuWO4 as a photocatalyst for room temperature aerobic benzylamine oxidation

Abstract

The aerobic photochemical oxidation of benzylamine was carried out on the ternary oxides CuWO₄ and BiVO₄ as a test proton-coupled-electron-transfer reaction in acetonitrile. Both oxides give the coupled imine product, N-benzylidenebenzylamine, in near quantitative (98–99%) yield, with rate constants of 0.34 h⁻¹ g⁻¹ and 0.70 h⁻¹ g⁻¹ for CuWO₄ and BiVO₄, respectively.