Issue 48, 2019

Reactivity control of a photocatalytic system by changing the light intensity

Abstract

We report a novel light-intensity dependent reactivity approach allowing us to selectively switch between triplet energy transfer and electron transfer reactions, or to regulate the redox potential available for challenging reductions. Simply by adjusting the light power density with an inexpensive lens while keeping all other parameters constant, we achieved control over one- and two-photon mechanisms, and successfully exploited our approach for lab-scale photoreactions using three substrate classes with excellent selectivities and good product yields. Specifically, our proof-of-concept study demonstrates that the irradiation intensity can be used to control (i) the available photoredox reactivity for reductive dehalogenations to selectively target either bromo- or chloro-substituted arenes, (ii) the photochemical cistrans isomerization of olefins versus their photoreduction, and (iii) the competition between hydrogen atom abstraction and radical dimerization processes.

Graphical abstract: Reactivity control of a photocatalytic system by changing the light intensity

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Edge Article
Submitted
11 Sep 2019
Accepted
08 Oct 2019
First published
30 Oct 2019
This article is Open Access

All publication charges for this article have been paid for by the Royal Society of Chemistry
Creative Commons BY-NC license

Chem. Sci., 2019,10, 11023-11029

Reactivity control of a photocatalytic system by changing the light intensity

C. Kerzig and O. S. Wenger, Chem. Sci., 2019, 10, 11023 DOI: 10.1039/C9SC04584H

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