ZnO Doped Lanthanide Oxide Nanomaterials as Photocatalysts for Selective Organic Transformation Reactions: Synthesis of N-Phenyl-P-Benzoquinonimine

Heterogeneous semiconductor nanomaterials are widely employed nowadays as efficient photocatalysts for selective organic transformation reactions. A co-precipitation technique was employed for the preparation of ZnO doped dysprosium oxide from the respective metal nitrates and characterization studies were conducted by FT-IR, X-Ray Differaction, UV-Visible-DRS and FE-SEM analysis. XRD showed the prepared nanomaterial to be in a nano range with high crystallinity. The particles possesed a spherical morphology and of the order of 40-50 nm (particle size) as evidenced from FE-SEM analysis. From the UV-Visible-DRS analysis the band gap energy was calculated as 3.15 eV. The synthesized ZnO doped dysprosium oxide was employed as a photocatalyst under UV light irradiation for selective organic transformation reaction. Quinones especially benzoquinones are a class of compounds which forms a basic structural skeleton for various natural compounds. They are widely employed as a precursor for natural products synthesis. Herein we report the synthesis of N-phenyl-p-benzoquinonimine from diphenylamine by employing ZnO doped dysprosium oxide as a photocatalyst under UV light irradiation in ethanol. Thin Layer Chromatography was used to check the progress of the reaction. Optimization studies for the reaction parameters were conducted systematically.