Prospects for solar synthesis

Abstract

Natural sunlight is a powerful source of energy to carry out useful chemical reactions. Polymers can be designed to control and catalyze important photochemical processes such as "artificial photosynthesis", production of h drogen peroxide, and removal of water contaminants such as polynuclear aromatics ("A's7 and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCB's). This paper describes preliminary explorations of ways to use the world's most abundant source of energy to power novel chemical processes by employing simple polymeric devices.