PPS Blog

It has been 100 years, almost to the day, since Italian Chemist Giacomo Luigi Ciamician first proposed harnessing the sun’s power to produce energy.  Writing in Science, Ciamician stated “And if in a distant future the supply of coal becomes completely exhausted, civilization will not be checked by that, for life and civilization will continue as long as the sun shines!”.  With these words in mind, we have selected Proton-Coupled Electron Transfer: A Carrefour of Chemical Reactivity edited by Sebastiao Formosinho and Monica Barroso as the October book of the month. 

Amongst other topics, this fascinating book discusses both natural and artificial photosynthesis and highlights the importance of proton-coupled electron transfer in biological systems, in particularly for bioenergetic conversion. 

“The book gives a good insight into current research on a vibrant topic. It is to be expected that it will be the first in a long upcoming list of publications, given the importance of PCET processes such as the activation of water, production of H₂, reduction of CO₂, and reduction of N₂.”  Reviewed in Angewandte Chemie International Edition.

Using personal accounts of experimental examples this book will provide a unique insight into the current understanding of this important reaction type.

Let the sun shine on your reactions.

Interested in other books on catalysis? Read more in the RSC Catalysis Series.

You may also be interested in this Photochemical & Photobiological Sciences themed issue on ‘Photosciences: A look to the future‘ or this latest issue from Energy & Environmental Science on ‘Proton-coupled electron transfer.’

The latest issue of PPS is now available online!

The front cover of this issue features work by Falk Renth, Friedrich Temps and colleagues from the University of Kiel, Germany, who report the sequential photoisomerisation dynamics of the push-pull azobenzene Disperse Red 1.  Azobenzene forms the basis of a number of numerous derivatives with applications as photochromic switches, tiny light-driven molecular manipulators, actuators and engines, and small optical memory or logical devices.  However, to reach the ambitious applications and designs for optimised functional azobenzene devices, we need to have detailed knowledge of the molecular dynamics of these molecules under different conditions. 

Here the team looked at substituted azobenzene dye Dispersed Red 1 (DR1), which is an electron donor-electron acceptor dye and a so-called push-pull azobenzene.  The donor-acceptor substitution introduces a strong charge-transfer character to the ππ* electronic transition.  The authors studied the ultra-fast dynamics of this push-pull character after photoexcitation at λ_pump= 475 nm by femtosecond time-resolved transient absorption spectroscopy and fluorescence up-conversion spectroscopy. This study of the DR1 dye in solution has provided a basis for the interpretation of new experiments on the photodynamics of DR1 in complex environments and under application-relevant conditions.

This article is free to access for 6 weeks!  Click on the link below to find out more…

Sequential photoisomerisation dynamics of the push–pull azobenzene Disperse Red 1, Julia Bahrenburg, Katharina Röttger, Ron Siewertsen, Falk Renth and Friedrich Temps, Photochem. Photobiol. Sci., 2012, 11, 1210-1219 DOI: 10.1039/C2PP05400K

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