Sustainable hybrid nanocatalysts based on fundamentally new photoactive complexes with Earth-abundant metals

光致发光过渡金属配合物由于其与技术相关的物理和光化学性质而受到越来越多的关注。特别地，用于生物成像、化学传感、临床治疗、太阳能电池和电子设备的多功能试剂的新兴需求使得光活性过渡金属络合物的进展成为必要。直到最近，这种复合物主要依赖于昂贵和稀有的金属，如铂，钌或铱，以及镧系元素如铕或镱。进行更可持续的化学的愿望激发了对由地球上丰富的金属（包括例如铁、铬或钼）制成的光活性络合物的研究。长期以来，只有相对较少的研究集中在这些金属的光致发光配合物，但现在的兴趣正在迅速增加。然而，为了使基于地球丰富的金属的络合物适合于日常生活中的应用，一些基本的关键挑战仍有待解决。与这些重要发展并行的是，纳米材料的突破促使科学家将光致发光（贵）金属络合物引入无机纳米结构中。这些新出现的杂化纳米催化剂表现出增强的物理化学性质，有前途的催化性能，和改进的多功能性。 然而，到目前为止，这一特定的研究领域几乎完全集中在将具有贵金属的光活性络合物掺入纳米基质中，而几乎没有尝试使用由地球丰富的金属制成的光活性络合物。为了填补这一重要的研究空白，申请人提出开发新型非均相纳米催化剂，其中包含新型光活性地球丰度金属配合物，与均相分子催化剂相比，其具有改善的光致发光性能和更稳健的催化活性。所提出的新型混合纳米催化剂在照明、传感、能量转换和催化等领域的多功能和更可持续的应用中具有巨大的潜力。

Photoluminescent transition metal complexes are receiving increasing attention because of their technologically relevant photophysical and photochemical properties. In particular, the emerging demands of versatile agents for photocatalysis, bioimaging, chemical sensing, clinical treatments, solar cells, and electronic devices necessitate advances in photoactive transition metal complexes. Until recently, such complexes relied mostly on expensive and rare metals, such as platinum, ruthenium, or iridium, as well as lanthanides like europium or ytterbium. The desire of performing more sustainable chemistry motivates research on photoactive complexes made from Earth-abundant metals including for example iron, chromium, or molybdenum. For a long time, only comparatively few studies focused on photoluminescent complexes with these metals, but now the interest is increasing rapidly. However, some fundamental key challenges remain to be solved in order to make complexes based on Earth-abundant metals fit for applications in daily life. In parallel to these important developments, breakthroughs in nanomaterials motivated scientists to introduce photoluminescent (precious) metal complexes into inorganic nanostructures. These newly emerging hybrid nanocatalysts exhibit enhanced photophysical properties, promising catalytic performance, and improved versatility. However, until now this specific research domain focused almost exclusively on the incorporation of photoactive complexes with precious metals into nanomatrices, whereas almost no attempts to employ photoactive complexes made from Earth-abundant metals have been made. To fill this important research gap, the applicant proposes to develop novel heterogeneous nanocatalysts incorporating new types of photoactive Earth-abundant metal complexes, which possess improved photoluminescence properties and more robust catalytic activities in comparison with the homogeneous molecular catalysts. The proposed fundamentally new class of hybrid nanocatalysts could have substantial potential for versatile and more sustainable applications in lighting, sensing, energy conversion, and catalysis.