Department News
Joint paper by Krauss and Weix groups on catalysis with Quantum Dots published in JACS
March 27, 2017
Congratulations to the Krauss and Weix research groups for the March 10, 2017 publication of their Journal of the American Chemical Society(JACS) article entitled “General and Efficient C-C Bond Forming Photoredox Catalysis with Semiconductor Quantum Dots.” The first paper of the nascent Krauss/Weix collaboration shows, for the first time, that semiconductor quantum dots are actually excellent, long-lived catalysts for a variety of photoredox reactions normally conducted with small molecule dyes (Ir, Ru, organic dyes). This is a nice advance because QDs can be tailored for a purpose, provide many of the advantages of heterogeneous catalysts without the disadvantages, and have excellent photophysical properties. From the Weix group, Dr. Jill Caputo with assistance from undergraduate Norman Zhao, handled the synthetic end while Leah Frenette and Dr. Kelly Sowers, of the Krauss group, supplied custom QDs and helped with measurements.
The article was also highlighted in the March 27th edition of Chemistry World, published by The Royal Society of Chemistry, by author Katrina Krämer. “Todd Krauss and Daniel Weix and their team from the University of Rochester have now introduced a promising new player to the field of photoredox catalysis: quantum dots. These nanosized semiconductor particles have been used to capture sunlight in solar cells and their brilliant colours have found application in commercial displays like that of Amazon’s tablet computer the Kindle Fire.”