Photoredox catalysis is rapidly gaining importance in organic synthesis, but its energy conversion efficiency is low. Inspired by the light-harvesting and conversion centers in biology, we report a method to organize the photocatalyst and reactants supramolecularly on a molecule-recognizing nanoparticle. The nanoparticle is prepared through molecular imprinting of a carboxylic acid template molecule and a thiourea. It contains multiple binding sites for the similarly shaped molecules involved in the photohydrodechlorination of aryl chlorides. The supramolecular organization enables the photocatalyst to distinguish the size and shape of the substrate. In addition, molecular imprinting allows tuning of substrate selectivity using the modularly synthesized templates.
Wallace et al. (Mon,) studied this question.