State Key Laboratory of Physical Chemistry of Solid Surfaces, Collaborative Innovation Center of Chemistry for Energy Materials, National Engineering Laboratory for Green Chemical Productions of Alcohols, Ethers and Esters, College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Xiamen University, Xiamen 361005, China. [Email] [Email]
Herein, an environmentally friendly CoP/Zn2In2S5 catalyst is reported as a visible-light photocatalyst for the selective activation of the α-C-H bond of methanol to generate ethylene glycol with a selectivity of as high as 90%. The catalytic system also illustrates the first example of visible-light-driven dehydrogenative coupling of ethanol to 2,3-butanediol.