Energy transfer catalysis mediated by visible light : principles, applications, directions

Harnessing visible light to access excited (triplet) states of organic compounds can enable impressive reactivity modes. This tutorial review covers the photophysical fundamentals and most significant advances in the field of visible-light-mediated energy transfer catalysis within the last decade. Methods to determine excited triplet state energies and to characterize the underlying Dexter energy transfer are discussed. Synthetic applications of this field, divided into four main categories (cyclization reactions, double bond isomerizations, bond dissociations and sensitization of metal complexes), are also examined.