Final Report Summary - SUNCATCHEM (Sustainable Light - Driven Catalytic Chemistry)
The overall objectives of the SunCatChem (Sustainable Light - Driven Catalytic Chemistry) project comprised the design and development of new methodologies and technologies for the functionalization of abundant but unreactive C-H bonds. The successful development of these transformations enables the sustainable formation of new carbon-carbon or carbon-heteroatom bonds, needed for the construction of vitally important complex molecules. With these goals in mind, we developed new strategies involving unprecedented concepts employing visible light as the energy source. The successful validation of our various innovative, light-driven, catalysis concepts has, thus, been achieved and includes the combination of metal and photoredox processes for the functionalization of C-H bonds; the use of organic photosensitizer and photopolymers in redox processes; C-H functionalizations using single electron transfer or energy transfer mechanisms; as well as unprecedented metal excited-stated catalysis processes. As a key enabling technology, we devisednewcontinuous flow reaction concepts which allowed fast self-optimization without the need for any manual interaction, resulting in increased practicability and wide acceptance.