Chapter 6 - Inorganic Photochemical Synthesis

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Inorganic photochemical synthesis is one of the most important methods for synthesis of inorganic compounds, multifunctional inorganic materials, new types of inorganic nanoparticles, and clean fuels such as H2 for solving the energy crisis and global warming problems. Many of the compounds and materials synthesized via photochemical methods exhibit unique structural features and physicochemical properties for which the materials via conventional synthetic methods are not able to provide. This uniqueness of photochemical synthesis arises from the difference between excited state chemistry and ground state chemistry, as exemplified by many examples of the syntheses of organometallic coordination compounds. For other inorganic materials such as film and nanoparticles, the uniqueness is from the better control of the synthesis and of the photo-generated electrons and electronic holes. In recent years, combination of photochemical synthesis with other synthesis methods opened up new and simple synthesis routes for materials science and engineering. Research on water splitting to produce H2 using visible light (sunlight) has made the photochemical synthesis method even more attractive. If the massive production of clean fuel H2 using solar energy could be realized in the future, there would not be an energy crisis and the world would become much cleaner than ever before. At that time, inorganic photochemical synthesis would become a part of daily life. If solar energy were used to produce ammonia from photolysis of N2 and the synthesis of fertilizer via the photochemical method could provide enough fertilizer for crops, inorganic photochemical synthesis would become a solid basis for human life and growth. It is certain that inorganic photochemical synthesis will become more and more important in the future.