Since many years, chemists leveraged the photophysical properties inherent to ruthenium or iridium-based photosensitizers to develop strategies towards conversion of sunlight into chemical energy such as molecular hydrogen or complex organic molecules. However, the scarcity and toxicity of these elements prevent the potential scalability of this kind of system. This is why the development of efficient photocatalytic complexes using cheap and abundant first row metals would offer an important solution to this problem.
During this Ph.D. thesis, we have designed and synthesized novel iron-based photosensitizers. Through coordination sphere modifications, we attempted to tune their photophysical properties and then utilized them as potent photosensitizers in photoredox catalysis. By careful investigations, we were able to determine the key parameters that could potential govern a photoreaction and to propose an in-depth reaction mechanism through time-resolved ultrafast spectroscopic techniques.
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The public defense of Akin Aydogan scheduled for Tuesday 10 May at 4:15 p.m will also take place in the form of a video conference