Green photochemistry: Production of fine chemicals with sunlight

Oelgemöller, Michael; Jung, Christian; Mattay, Jochen

doi:10.1351/pac200779111939

Pure Appl. Chem., 2007, Vol. 79, No. 11, pp. 1939-1947

http://dx.doi.org/10.1351/pac200779111939

Green photochemistry: Production of fine chemicals with sunlight

Michael Oelgemöller¹, Christian Jung² and Jochen Mattay³

¹ School of Chemical Sciences and National Institute for Cellular Biotechnology, Dublin City University, Dublin 9, Ireland
² German Aerospace Center (DLR), Solarforschung, Linder Höhe, D-51147 Cologne, Germany
³ Organic Chemistry I, Department of Chemistry, University of Bielefeld, P.O. Box 10 01 31, D-33501 Bielefeld, Germany

Abstract: Three photochemical reactions were investigated under solar irradiation conditions with moderately concentrated sunlight: the photoacylation of naphthoquinone with butyraldehyde and the dye-sensitized photooxygenations of citronellol and 1,5-dihydroxynaphthalene, respectively. All reactions were easily performed on multigram-to-kilogram scales using cheap and commercially available starting materials, and yielded important key intermediates for industrial applications.