CdS decorated graphitic carbon nitride catalyzed one-pot hydrogenation of nitroaromatics and benzylamine derivatives coupling under visible light irradiation

Oxidation and reduction reactions are essential in the chemical industries to produce various fine chemicals. However, the selectivity of the oxidized and reduced products is still a challenge to chemists and needs to be focused on. In the present work, CdS nanoparticles were decorated at carbon nitride nanosheets via the sol-gel method. The nanocomposite's activity was investigated for nitroarenes and benzylamines' reduction and oxidation reactions. The heterojunction improved the charge carriers' separation, which enhanced the yields of aniline and imines up to 99% with >99% selectivity. The reaction yields with the recovered photocatalyst were relatively similar to the fresh photocatalyst up to five cycles without losing the photocatalytic activity and without leaching the metal content in the reaction mixture. The heterojunction's physicochemical properties were also determined to investigate. The excellent photocatalytic activity of carbon nitride-based photocatalyst and one-pot two reactions has a broad scope and can elaborate on other organic transformations.