Professor John Swierk of Binghamton University

"Mechanistic Investigations of Photoredox Reactions"

Photoredox catalysis is transforming modern synthetic chemistry. Expensive, hard to handle stoichiometric reagents can be replaced by short-lived excited states using a visible light absorbing photocatalyst. While the scope of photoredox methods has grown at an exceptional pace, mechanistic and kinetic understanding has lagged behind. Using a prototypical alpha-amino arylation reaction as an example, the reaction intermediates and kinetics of each step are determined using a mixture of transient absorption spectroscopy and electrochemical methods. Kinetic modeling is then used to rationalize the design of this and other photoredox reactions.