Combining singlet fission materials with supramolecular self-assembly for demanding two-electron transfer reactions

Research question

The main challenge when using singlet fission to drive multi electron transfer reactions is to ensure that the singlet fission materials (here pentacenes) have the required electronic coupling between the individual chromophores as well as to the electron acceptor. This will be ad-dressed by using supramolecular cage structure, in which the cage is built from pentacene ligands, and the two-electron acceptor is encapsulated non-covalently in the cavity. With this approach we plan to demonstrate multi-redox reactions without the use of precious metals to store redox equivalents, and thereby open a novel research field with the goal of producing solar fuels.

Sustainability aspects

Solar energy is the only renewable source that has the potential to replace all fossil fuels and secure our future need for clean energy. Solar cells could provide us with primary energy in the form of electricity, but the long term (seasonal) storage challenges need to urgently be addressed – we need to use solar energy to make fuels. Direct transformation of solar energy into fuels is the aim of this project that will use rare-metal free organic self-assembled systems to demon-strate demanding two-electron redox reactions upon absorption of a single photon.