Counteranion captures reactants to boost light-driven chemistry in dilute solutions

edited by Gaby Clark , reviewed by Robert Egan

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Add to Preferred Sources The proposed photocatalytic system uses BBcat as a counteranion. This unique molecule acts as a Lewis acid and an anion at the same time, capturing basic substrates and keeping them close to the photocatalytic cation. Credit: Takanori Iwasaki/Kyushu University Researchers at Kyushu University have developed a photocatalytic system that can selectively capture reacting molecules and hold them close to the active sites that absorb energy from light. This innovation addresses a long-standing challenge of having the photocatalyst maintain a high reaction rate even when the reacting molecules are present at very low concentrations.