Task Group Chairman

Axel G. Griesbeck, Prof. Dr., University of Cologne, Germany, Department of Chemistry,
griesbeck@uni-koeln.de

Task Group Members

Michael Oelgemöller, Prof. Dr., Dublin City University School of Chemical Sciences michael.oelgemoeller@dcu.ie

Objective

To establish a series of well-defined and completely characterized photochemical reactions that serve as model processes for scaling and adopting light-induced transformations. The specification of process parameters, lamp properties, reactor geometries, reaction details as well as quantum yields and spectral properties of substrate and products from a series of model transformations.

Description

Photochemical technologies will become one of the major areas of research in the next decades due to the decrease in fossil resources and consequently the need for alternative sources of energy and also alternative pathways for conducting chemical transformations. Nature has for millions of years successful used photochemistry as the only way of energy to produce energetic materials that mankind is now consuming with increasing speed in less than two centuries. Not only is the solar production of electricity, heat or hydrogen important in this context but also the use of photon energy for the conversion of organic materials. Photochemical processes which are currently developed and optimized for application in synthesis have to show better of at least comparable efficiencies and selectivities as the currently used thermal catalytic or non-catalytic reactions. In order to achieve this goal it is necessary to apply standard methods for comparing different reaction setups. A prerequisite for data input is a collection of the necessary data for alternative photochemical reactions, e.g. the specification of process parameters, lamp (and most important: energy input) properties, reactor geometries, reaction details such as chemical and quantum yields, spectral properties of substrate and products. Worldwide there are numerous research initiatives which aim in photochemical CC bond formation, ring-closure and cycloaddition, rearrangement and functionalization reactions. Often these reactions are not well characterized in the literature with respect to the factors mentioned above.

This project plans to improve on this dissatisfactory situation by defining standards in an iterative way by collecting fully characterized photochemical processes.