Project description
Study investigates photocatalyst structure and composition to improve reaction efficiency
Photocatalysis offers the potential to use visible light to initiate chemical transformations. The photocatalytic activity of such light-driven reactions largely hinges on the ability of photocatalysts to create electron–hole pairs. The selection and structural refinement of photocatalysts often relies on trial-and-error approaches. The EU-funded SYNPHOCAT project will further explore how a photocatalyst’s properties relate to its composition and structure. Project work will pave the way for the rational evaluation and optimisation of the structure and physicochemical properties of photocatalysts. Overall, SYNPHOCAT will deliver new conceptual and experimental tools for the sustainable light-driven construction and functionalisation of biorelevant molecules.
Objective
Solar light is an inexhaustible, abundant, and free reactant that can promote the construction and transformation of molecules. The chemistry community is particularly interested in photocatalysis, which uses light energy to promote a chemical transformation. Photocatalysts (PCs) play a key role in transformative light-driven processes by donating or receiving electrons to or from the target substrate. The selection and structural refinement of PCs can channel reactivity to diverse mechanistic pathways, but often proceeds via trial and error. Here, I will use structure-property relationships to: 1) define novel bimodal organic PCs able to catalyse thermodynamically demanding and opposite photoredox events exploiting their electronically excited state; 2) explore the PCs reactivity by means of their radical ions, going beyond conventional photoredox approaches; 3) capitalise on the new reactivity and bimodal way of action of the PCs to implement novel selective transformations of biological targets under physiological conditions. These project core concepts will be accomplished by the rational evaluation and optimisation of the PCs physicochemical and structural properties as well as the careful analysis of the mechanistic features subtending the light-driven chemical events. Overall, SYNPHOCAT will deliver new conceptual and experimental tools for the sustainable light-driven construction and functionalisation of biorelevant molecules, opening the way to a new dimension of sustainable light-driven chemistry.
Fields of science
Programme(s)
- HORIZON.1.1 - European Research Council (ERC) Main Programme
Topic(s)
Funding Scheme
ERC - Support for frontier research (ERC)Host institution
35122 Padova
Italy