Solar Light-Induced Synthesis of Biologically Active Compounds

Abstract

Over the past few years, photocatalytic methods have shown great promise as low-cost, environmentally friendly, and sustainable technologies. During the development of photochemistry, a variety of sources of light were used, including sunlight, compact fluorescent lamps, lasers, and even light-emitting diodes. As a part of preparing diverse organic compounds, the photochemical approach was used, for instance, to form rings, arylated compounds, cycloaddition, functionalized compounds, dehalogenated compounds, oxidized compounds, reduced compounds, isomers, and sensitized compounds. Solar energy is a renewable resource that can be harvested from the sun and this light energy can be changed into chemical energy with the help of photocatalysts. During this green approach, electron-hole pairs are generated in photocatalysts in order to begin reactions by using solar light. It has been highlighted in this article that there have been impressive developments in the use of light, mainly the solar light, to promote important organic reactions, which would otherwise be unattainable under thermal conditions.

Keywords: Photochemistry; organic compounds; photocatalysts; solar light; synthesis.