Water: An underappreciated reaction medium for photodimerizations

Organic solvents have been the sought-after medium to achieve light initiated transformations in laboratories and industries. Given current emphasis on green chemistry rising awareness of environmental pollution it may be necessary for us utilize abundantly freely available, non-toxic environmentally friendly water as perform photoreactions. Although has attracted attention organic synthetic chemists, is yet receive indispensable photochemists. In this article we present examples photocycloaddition reactions four molecules namely coumarin, indene, cinnamic acid acenaphthylene that are sparingly soluble water. Photodimerization these much faster occurs at lower concentrations than solvents. Aggregation probably forced by hydrophobic association suggested cause increased reactivity even concentrations. The dimer distribution different from Further work required fully understand mechanism photodimerization poor solubility requires one irradiate large volumes collect enough useful amounts, availability flow reactors LEDs sources should help overcome challenges.