Environmental photocatalysis in action for green chemistry

Heterogeneous photocatalysis is a recent discipline particularly well adapted to environmental problems since it operates at room temperature by replacing catalyst's thermo-activation by photo-activation (or replacing phonons by photons). In fine chemistry, high initial selectivities (100%) are obtained in dry organic media in selective mild oxidation of gaseous or liquid hydrocarbons. Similarly, 100% selectivities were obtained in sulfur-involving photocatalytic reactions, noted as thio-photocatalysis. Environmental photocatalysis is active in water and air decontamination and can advantageously use the UV-A solar spectrum for outside applications.