Accessible low-cost laser pointers for the reduction of aryl halides via triplet-triplet annihilation upconversion in aerated gels

The search for economic alternatives in the use of expensive scientific equipment represents a way of providing many laboratories access to scientific developments that, otherwise, might be hampered by economic constraints. This inspired the purpose of this work, which was to demonstrate for the fir...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores: Díaz Díaz, David, Domínguez Domínguez, Paola, Bonardd, Sebastián, Martín Koury, Samuel, Pérez Ruiz, Raúl, Jiménez, M. Consuelo
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Estado:Versión publicada
Fecha de publicación:2022
País:España
Institución:Universidad de La Laguna (ULL)
Repositorio:RIULL. Repositorio Institucional de la Universidad de La Laguna
OAI Identifier:oai:riull.ull.es:915/42212
Acceso en línea:http://riull.ull.es/xmlui/handle/915/42212
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:laser pointer
photoreduction
gels
aryl halides
triplet-triplet annihilation upconversion
aerobic conditions
research economy
Descripción
Sumario:The search for economic alternatives in the use of expensive scientific equipment represents a way of providing many laboratories access to scientific developments that, otherwise, might be hampered by economic constraints. This inspired the purpose of this work, which was to demonstrate for the first time that we can carry out the photoreduction of aryl halides via green-to-blue upconversion in an aerated gel medium, using a simple economic set-up based on easily accessible and low-cost laser pointers. The optimized set-up consists of three laser pointers connected to a switching-mode power supply. One laser should be aligned to Z-axis and separated 5 cm from the sample, while the light incidence of the other two lasers should be adjusted to 45◦ and separated ca. 3 cm from the sample. The results of this study were found to be reproducible in random experiments and demonstrated that the photoreduction of several aryl halides can be carry out within 24 h of irradiation with comparable yields and mass balances, to those obtained with other very expensive pulsed laser sources. An economic estimation of the expenses concludes that we can easily reduce by >98% the total cost of this type of research by using the described set-up. Our work offers many groups with limited resources a feasible alternative to work in this area without the necessity of extremely expensive devices.