Methanol reagent grade

TiO₂ P25 (>99.5 %, 21 nm primary particle size), benzene, dimethoxymethane, 2,4‐diamino‐6‐phenyl‐1,3,5‐triazine, aniline, 1,2‐dichloroethane, N,N‐dimethylformamide and iron(III) chloride were all purchased from Sigma‐Aldrich. 4,4′‐bis(methoxymethyl)biphenyl was purchased from Tokyo Chemical Industry (TCI) UK and methanol (reagent grade) was purchased from VWR. All reagents were used as received. All gases were purchased from BOC.

Solvents: chloroform, ethyl acetate, formic acid and methanol reagent grade were purchased from VWR (Fontenay-sous-bois, France); acetonitrile HPLC grade was purchased from fisher scientific; Milli-Q water (18.2 MΩ) was generated by Millipore synergy system (Molsheim, France).
Chemicals: 2,2′-azino-bis(3-ethylbenzthiazoline-6-sulfonic acid) diammonium salt (ABTS^•+), (C₁₈H₂₄N₆O₆S₄) was purchased from Biochemica Applichem (Darmstadt, Germany); 2,2′-azobis(2-methylpropionamidine) dihydrochloride (AAPH), (C₈H₁₈N₆ 2HCl); (+)-6-hydroxy-2,5,7,8-tetramethylchromane-2-carboxylic acid (trolox), (C₁₄H₁₈O₄); fluorescein (C₂₀H₁₂O₅), were purchased from Sigma-Aldrich (Steinheim, Germany); sodium chloride was purchased from VWR; potassium chloride and potassium persulfate were purchased from Prolabo (Paris, France); potassium dihydrogen phosphate, disodium hydrogen phosphate and disodium dihydrogen phosphate were purchased from Merck (Darmstadt, Germany).