Photoresponsive nanostructure assisted green synthesis of organics and polymers

Solar light is believed to be the most sustainable and clean energy source. In line with the concept of green chemistry, the use of solar energy has been a formidable impetus toward the development of novel photo-based synthetic technologies to drive various chemical reactions. Photosynthesis is a promising route to achieve a wide array of chemical transformations with distinctive energy and environmental merits which are usually inaccessible with conventional thermal processes. Photoinduced organic synthesis, as one important branch of photosynthesis, has attracted increasingly attentions to meet the growing-up environmental and energy concerns. Highly photoresponsive nanoparticles (NPs), such as semiconductors, can generate photoexcited charge carriers, i.e. electron-hole pairs, upon photon absorption, which can favor a vast number of reactions, demonstrating unique advantages including the easily recycling and reuse, the use of mild reaction conditions and the generation of high-purity products devoid of contaminants. This review article highlights recent representative advances in heterogenous photocatalytic organic synthesis, mainly including CO2 reduction, organic transform and free radical polymerization; in particular, for the first time, the achievements on photoresponsive NP initiated free radical polymerizations are summarized here. We conclude this review by proposing several interesting research directions and future challenges with the hope that it can serve as a good reference for researchers in nanomaterials and catalysis.