Sustainable chemical synthesis: making molecules using visible-light irradiation

Abstract

The discovery of new strategies to increase the sustainability of chemical manufacturing is of critical importance to many sectors. To this end, photochemistry offers significant potential, as the irradiation of molecules and catalysts with visible light (considered a safe and renewable chemical reagent) can provide access to known molecules in a more sustainable fashion or novel molecular scaffolds that cannot be accessed via traditional means. Acyl silanes are a fascinating functional group which, upon irradiation with blue light, undergo rearrangement to generate reactive intermediates. Recent studies into the reactivity of acyl silanes within our research group has led to the discovery of a series of new photochemical methods to access unique molecular scaffolds using only visible-light irradiation, circumventing the use of precious metal catalysts and additives.