Enrolling reactive oxygen species in photon-to-chemical energy conversion: fundamentals, technological advances, and applications

In theory, oxygen (O-2) is an ideal chemical reagent because of its high relative abundance and negligible environmental toxicity. In practice however, by the nature of its ground state electronic configuration, many chemical reactions involving O-2 are spin forbidden which dramatically decreases its reactivity and thus its utility in applications. More reactive forms of O-2 can be achieved by changing its electronic configuration through the use of photochemical and photophysical methods. This review highlights the roll of photon-to-chemical energy conversion in two of these reactive oxygen species (ROS): superoxide (O-2(-)) and singlet oxygen (O-1(2)), which can be accessed through a number of photochemical methods and used in a variety of exciting applications. The theory behind ROS is introduced as produced using light irradiation. Then applications of these methods for chemical transformations are explored. [GRAPHICS]