CO2 and anthropogenic waste materials as feedstock reagents in photocatalytic reactions

近年来，有机合成中光催化领域的研究兴趣显著增加，这是因为与合成化学的这一分支相关的吸引人的优点；光催化能够通过光诱导的化学过程实现独特的转化，而这通常是传统的热方法所无法实现的，同时在温和的条件下保持高的反应选择性。1-4在合成有机化学中使用光催化剂所提供的新颖的反应性还有进一步的好处，即允许将小的气态分子用作反应的试剂。气态分子，如二氧化碳、5-7二氧化硫、8-10甲烷和其他小碳氢化合物11、12都作为原料试剂出现在最近的出版物中。这是一个非常令人兴奋的研究领域；通过使用光催化，可以将这些丰富的、可能廉价的小废物分子转化为有价值的合成目标产品的积木，从而为投资这些技术和方法提供经济激励。该领域具有广泛的进一步研究潜力：包括开发新的光催化剂，发现新的合成反应，以及测试新的实验装置，以提高光催化转化在合成化学中的通用性。此外，这项工作将有助于实现使有机化学更加绿色的目标：使用人为废气作为原料试剂来合成有价值的目标分子，并开发新的反应，将我们对稀有过渡金属的依赖降至最低。

The field of photocatalysis in organic synthesis has seen a significant increase in research interest in recent years due to the appealing benefits that are associated with this branch of synthetic chemistry; photocatalysis enables unique transformations to be achieved via the light induced chemical processes which are typically inaccessible by conventional thermal approaches, while maintaining high reaction selectivity under mild conditions.1-4The novel reactivities afforded by the use of photocatalysts in synthetic organic chemistry has the further benefit of allowing small, gaseous molecules to be used as reagents in reactions. Gaseous molecules such as carbon dioxide,5-7 sulfur dioxide,8-10 methane and other small hydrocarbons11, 12 have all featured in recent publications as feedstock reagents. This is a hugely exciting research area; by using photocatalysis it is feasible to convert these abundant, and thereby potentially inexpensive, small waste molecules into building blocks for valuable synthetic target products, thereby providing an economic incentive for investing in these technologies and approaches. This field has potential for extensive further research: including the development of new photocatalysts, the discovery of novel synthetic reactions, and the testing of new experimental setups to improve the versatility of photocatalytic transformations in synthetic chemistry. Furthermore, this work will contribute to the goal of making organic chemistry more 'green': by using anthropogenic waste gases as feedstock reagents to synthesise valuable target molecules, and by developing new reactions that minimise our reliance on rare transition metals.