In-situ surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy revealing the role of metal–organic frameworks on photocatalytic reaction selectivity on highly sensitive and durable Cu-CuBr substrate

Photocatalytic reactions using copper-based nanomaterials have emerged as a new paradigm in green technology. Selective photocatalysis is very important for improving energy utilization efficiency, and in order to directional improve catalytic selectivity, it is necessary to understand the mechanism of interfacial reactions at the molecular level. Therefore, a unique bifunctional Cu-CuBr substrate is first fabricated via an electrochemical method, which overcomes the instability of traditional copper-based materials and endows high surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) sensitivity and photocatalytic performance and can be stored stably for more than a year. Further modification of the surface with Metal-Organic Frameworks (MOFs) containing carboxyl functional groups can significantly tune the surface properties of the substrate. This increases the adsorption of cationic dyes to improve the SERS effect, and 10-10 M methylene blue can easily be detected with this substrate. Surprisingly, in-situ SERS monitoring of the interfacial photocatalytic dehalogenation reaction of aromatic halides through its intrinsic SERS effect reveal two competing selective reaction pathways, self-coupling and hydrogenation. Typically, the SERS spectra reveal that the latter's selectivity was greatly enhanced after MOFs modification, and the yield rate of the hydrogenated product increased from 27.6 % to 46.9 % (selectivity increased from 32.7 % to 51.5 %). This proves that the surface properties of catalysts, especially the affinity for reaction intermediates, can effectively regulate catalytic selectivity.