Tomáš Slanina: Advanced Control of Photochemical and Redox Systems

Light is often perceived as an immaterial elusive element that cannot transform matter. Irradiation can, however, trigger chemical species that change structure and create new chemical bonds. Therefore, light represents one of the most elegant, traceless ways to control chemical reactions and change the properties and constitution of materials. In this lecture, we aim at molecules and molecular systems that can be activated using visible light. We discuss three abstract concepts for advanced control of molecules: (i) reversible photochemical bond formation and cleavage, (ii) multimodal photochemistry, and (iii) photoreversible electron transfer.

Thanks to their unique properties, presented systems can be widely used, for example, as light-controllable drugs, programmable molecular electronic components, affinity tags of biomolecules, photosensitive materials, functionalized polymers, organic electronics, or organic solar panels and batteries.

Tomáš Slanina is a group leader of the Redox Photochemistry group at IOCB Prague. Previously, following his MSc studies at Masaryk University, he joined a joint PhD program between his alma mater and the University of Regensburg, under the supervision of Professors Klán and König, graduating in 2015. Subsequently, he completed two postdoctoral stays, first with Professor Heckel, at Goethe University, and then with Professor Ottosson, at Uppsala University. Currently, his research interests lie at the intersection of photo-, organic and radical chemistry and spectroscopy.