Molecular photosensitizers are key components for the design of photovoltaic devices, solar fuel production, and photoredox catalysis. Many popular transition metal photosensitizers rely on the use of precious metals such as ruthenium or iridium, which limits their potential for solar energy applications on a global scale at affordable costs. In contrast, the early transition metals titanium and zirconium are readily-available and cheap, but molecular photosensitizers based on these elements are rare. This talk will cover our efforts to design photoluminescent compounds based on earth-abundant group 4 metals that can undergo facile single electron transfer upon photoexcitation with visible light. Our combined experimental and computational studies of the key role of ligand-to-metal charge transfer in the initial charge separation step will be presented. Applications of this new class of photosensitizers in photoredox catalysis will be discussed and detailed mechanistic insight into the fundamental electron transfer processes will be provided.

Molecular photosensitizers based on earth abundant early transition metals

254th National Meeting (2017)

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