Electro-photo Catalysis

Electro-photocatalysis entails the merging of one electron and one photon in the same reaction cycle. This is opening unexplored pathways in synthetic chemistry.

The unique features of the combined electro-photo-chemical approach are exploited to discover new reaction pathways, to improve the selectivity of a catalyst, and to build new materials via polymerization reactions. In particular, the sum of the energy of one electron and one photon in the same reaction cycle enables to reach unprecedented high energy levels to perform challenging reactions.

Ultimately, this procedure directly mimics Nature’s own solution to the energy problem: Every day, colored pigments in plants absorb the energy of two visible photons to drive a thermodynamically challenging process between two molecules that do not absorb visible light—CO2 and H2O.