Dr. Francisco Juliá-Hernández, University of Murcia

"Illuminating Earth-abundant Metals: New Opportunities in Organic Synthesis"
Visible-light photoredox catalysis has driven the evolution towards more efficient and sustainable syntheses to build up molecular complexity via single-electron transfer (SET) events. State-of-the-art photocatalysts, commonly made by precious metals or organic compounds, promote this key SET via an outer-sphere mechanism, in which a match between the redox potentials of photocatalyst and substrate is required. Although outstanding advances have been accomplished, this redox limitation has hampered the expansion of the scope of these transformations. In my talk, I will summarize my group’s efforts to overcome these challenges with the design of Earth-abundant metal photocatalysts, made of inexpensive and readily available base-metals, which operate via a complementary mode of action from traditional photoredox catalysts, outperforming their activity.