Solar energy has been widely captured by silicon solar cell and converted towards electricity. In this work, we employed silicon Quantum dots (QDs), which are directly derived from cheap Si source, towards photoredox reactions and ultimately, drug molecule development.  Herein, we demonstrate a method to synthesize photocatalytic active silicon QDs from bulk Si using a High Energy Ball Milling (HEBM) mechanic approach. Alkenyl passivated silicon QDs (～2-5 nm) show high chemical stability and moderate photoluminance (PL) with a broad range of emission. More importantly, our passivated silicon QDs derived from bulk Si, demonstrated high catalytic activity and functional group tolerance toward C-H activation of tertiary amine. Building upon these advances, Si photocatalyst exhibit a promising way for pharmaceutical molecule synthesis, for instance, indolizidine alkaloid compound. These finds suggest that our economical photocatalysts may bring insight towards organic photoredox synthesis.<br/>

Silicon for pharmaceutical molecule synthesis: Alkenyl-passivated Si quantum dots for C-H activation of tertiary amine

2019 Fall National Meeting

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