Palladium nanoparticles on gallium nitride as a Mott–Schottky catalyst for efficient and durable photoactivation of unactivated alkanes

The direct functionalization of inert C–H bonds has long been a “holy grail” for the chemistry world. In this report, the direct C(sp(3))–N bond formation of unactivated alkanes is reported with a GaN based Mott–Schottky catalyst under photocatalytic reaction conditions. Long term stability and reaction efficiency (up to 92%) were achieved with this photocatalyst. The deposition of a Pd co-catalyst on the surface of GaN significantly enhanced the reaction efficiency. Microscopic investigation suggested a remarkable interaction in the Pd/GaN Schottky junction, giving a significant Pd/GaN depletion layer. In addition, density functional theory (DFT) calculations were performed to show the distinct performance of Pd nanoparticles at the atomic level.