Organic molecules and materials to promote noble metal-free and coupled light-driven catalysis (A06*)

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In this project, organic molecular compounds for light-driven catalysis will be developed. Two of the key scientific questions of the 2nd CATALIGHT funding period are whether more abundant compounds, such as organics, can replace noble metal-based photosensitizers or catalysts, traditionally used in photocatalysis, and whether the redox properties of soft matter matrices can be used to couple oxidative and reductive reactions. This project aims to answer to these two key scientific questions by developing (1) organic photosensitizers making use of the thermally activated delayed fluorescence (TADF) concept, and (2) redox active organic compounds that allow coupling oxidative and reductive reactions, and their incorporation in soft matter matrices. For (1) organic dyes showing relatively long-lived excited states and TADF will be investigated as photosensitizers in light-driven reactions to replace rare noble metal-based photosensitizers. They will both be used as small molecule photosensitizers as well as embedded by covalent linkage into photosensitizers-catalyst dyads. For (2) organic redox-active units that can be reversibly oxidized and store positive charges for temporally decoupled catalytic processes will be developed, incorporated into polymers and investigated in (reductive) hydrogen evolution reactions. They will then be coupled in soft matter matrices with organic polymers that can be reversibly reduced and employed in coupled reaction schemes of oxidation and reduction.