Professor Tomislav Rovis of Columbia University

"Controlling Catalysis with Light"

Light is an ideal external stimulus for chemical reactions, easy to deliver with the flip of a switch and pinpoint accuracy. When coupled with photoredox catalysis, it has enabled numerous synthetic transformations covering a range of bond constructions and strategies. While purple-blue light (~390-450 nm) is by far the most commonly used part of the visible spectrum, it carries enough energy to directly excite some molecules leading to undesired byproducts. Deep red (DR) and infrared (IR) light, on the other hand, is much lower in energy and has the added benefit of penetrating many materials and even biological tissue. This lecture will discuss our recent efforts at developing systems for DR and IR photoredox catalysis and some applications.