Pure Appl. Chem. Vol.
73, No. 3, pp. 395-403 (2001)
Pure and Applied
Chemistry
Vol. 73, Issue
3
Twentieth century developments in photochemistry. Brief historical
sketches*
Heinz D. Roth
Department of Chemistry, Rutgers University, New Brunswick,
NJ 08854-8087, USA
Abstract: In the 20th century, photochemistry blossomed from
a poorly defined to a highly sophisticated science. Early breakthroughs
in exploratory photochemistry and the underlying physical principles
led to new diverse, yet inter-related areas of research. The alluring
goal of asymmetric synthesis with circularly polarized light proved
elusive. The discovery of the electron brought a gradual awakening to
the idea of electron transfer. Time-resolved spectroscopy developed
from ms to fs resolution. The field of photosynthesis progressed from
an interest in function and structure of photosynthetic pigments to
the isolation and structure elucidation of photosynthetic reaction centers
(rhodobacter sphaeroides), to the detailed kinetics of sequential electron-transfer
steps in natural and synthetic light-harvesting systems.
*Lecture presented at the XVIIIth IUPAC Symposium on
Photochemistry, Dresden, German , 22-27 July 2000.Other presentations
are published in this issue, pp.395-548.
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