An unexplored O2-involved pathway for the decarboxylation of saturated carboxylic acids by TiO2 photocatalysis: an isotopic probe study.

The aerobic decarboxylation of saturated carboxylic acids (from C(2) to C(5)) in water by TiO(2) photocatalysis was systematically investigated in this work. It was found that the split of C(1)-C(2) bond of the acids to release CO(2) proceeds sequentially (that is, a C(5) acid sequentially forms C(4) products, then C(3) and so forth). As a model reaction, the decarboxylation of propionic acid to produce acetic acid was tracked by using isotopic-labeled H(2)(18)O. As much as ≈42% of oxygen atoms of the produced acetic acids were from dioxygen ((16)O(2)). Through diffuse reflectance FTIR measurements (DRIFTS), we confirmed that an intermediate pyruvic acid was generated prior to the cut-off of the initial carboxyl group; this intermediate was evidenced by the appearance of an absorption peak at 1772 cm(-1) (attributed to C=O stretch of α-keto group of pyruvic acid) and the shift of this peak to 1726 cm(-1) when H(2)(16)O was replaced by H(2)(18)O. Consequently, pyruvic acid was chosen as another model molecule to observe how its decarboxylation occurs in H(2)(16)O under an atmosphere of (18)O(2). With the α-keto oxygen of pyruvic acid preserved in the carboxyl group of acetic acid, ≈24% new oxygen atoms of the produced acetic acid were from molecular oxygen at near 100% conversion of pyruvic acid. The other ≈76% oxygen atoms were provided by H(2)O through hole/OH radical oxidation. In the presence of conduction band electrons, O(2) can independently accomplish such C(1)-C(2) bond cleavage of pyruvic acid to generate acetic acid with ≈100% selectivity, as confirmed by an electrochemical experiment carried out in the dark. More importantly, the ratio of O(2) participation in decarboxylation increased along with the increase of pyruvic acid conversion, indicating the differences between non-substituted acids and α-keto acids. This also suggests that the O(2)-dependent decarboxylation competes with hole/OH-radical-promoted decarboxylation and depends on TiO(2) surface defects at which Ti(4c) sites are available for the simultaneous coordination of substrates and O(2).