The application of the uranyl salts as the powerful photo-redox catalysts in chemical transformations is backward in comparison with their advances in thermo-catalysis and structural chemistry. In fact, the uranyl cations (UO22+) have been proven as ideal photo-redox catalysts in visible-light-driven chemical reactions. The excited state of uranyl cations (*UO22+), quenching by organic substrates via hydrogen atom transfer (HAT) or single electron transfer (SET), possesses a long-lived fluorescence lifetime up to microseconds and high oxidizing ability [Eo = +2.6 V vs standard hydrogen electrode (SHE)], which were excited with visible-light irradiation through ligand-to-metal charge transfer (LMCT). Interestingly, the ground state and excited state of uranyl cations (UO22+) are chemical inert toward oxygen molecules, preventing undesired transformations from active oxygen species. This review summarizes recent advances in photo-redox transformations enabled by uranyl salts.
A Bpp-based dinuclear ruthenium photocatalyst for visible light-driven oxidation reactions