The Japan Industrial Technology Research Institute has developed a new technology that synthesizes KA oil (cyclohexanone + cyclohexanol), a raw material such as nylon, with a high selectivity of about 99% at room temperature and pressure through a semiconductor photoelectrode. The second-developed technology uses solar energy and weak electrical energy to synthesize chemical materials with high added value.
The semiconductor photoelectrode is an electrode that connects wires on a plate-shaped and film-like semiconductor, and performs redox reaction by light. The researchers put the fabricated semiconductor photoelectrode and counter electrode into a single-chamber type reaction vessel, using cyclohexane. The reaction solution with nitric acid irradiates the photoelectrode with simulated sunlight in an oxygen-containing state to generate KA oil. A weak reaction can be generated only by irradiating the simulated sunlight, and the generation speed can be increased by about 6 times after the external voltage is applied. In addition, the tungsten oxide semiconductor photoelectrode made by them is stable in state, and there is no degradation problem in recycling.
