inorganic chemistry

sensitization of such photoprocesses remains a central challenge
for utilizing sunlight as the energy source for enzyme mimetics,
artificial photosynthesis, and chemical photocatalysis. Several
applications of metal-based drugs in molecular photomedicine
also require light sensitivity in clearly defined spectral regions.
Therefore, a brief overview on bioinorganic chromophores and
their synthetic counterparts is provided. We also focus on the
integration of abundant natural resources and the search for
novel photocatalysts based on nonprecious metals and environ-
mentally benign materials.

Keywords:Bioinorganic chromophores; Solar photochemistry;
Biomimetic catalysis; Artificial photosynthesis; Photoactivated
drugs.

I. Introduction

The science of inorganic photochemistry has matured over the
past 40 years( 1 ). It covers in depth all kinds of chemical effects
of photons on inorganic matter. Therefore, it is not surprising
that the progress achieved in studying the properties of excited
state materials and the photophysics and photochemistry of coor-
dination compounds has significantly driven the frontiers of
many other branches of research. Major topics now well
established in the field include the detailed characterization of
photoexcited metal complexes, photoinduced electron and energy
transfer processes, solar energy conversion, homogeneous and
heterogeneous photocatalysis, supramolecular photochemistry,
semiconductor sensitization, photochromism, luminescent
probes, sensors, and the development of light-emitting devices
such as OLEDs ( 2 ).
More recently, the various aspects of light-responsive and
photoreactive inorganic compounds in biological and bioinspired
systems have been addressed( 3 – 6 ). In the present contribution,
some fundamental principles and first advances of the rapidly
evolving fields of bioinorganic photochemistry and biomimetic
photocatalysiswill be discussed.^1 No attempt will be made to
provide a comprehensive coverage of the relevant literature,
which is widespread across a bunch of different disciplines

(^1) The termphotocatalystis used to characterize a substance able to induce cat-
alytic chemical transformations of reaction partners upon the absorption of
light ( 7 ).
236 GÜNTHER KNÖR AND UWE MONKOWIUS