PURPOSE AND MAIN OBJECTIVES OF THE THESIS

The term photocatalysis is often used to refer to processes carried out in the presence of photoactive materials and aimed toward wastewater decontamination or water splitting for the generation of hydrogen as a fuel. However, the idea that photocatalysis can provide an alternative to more conventional synthetic pathways has been gradually emerging [1-13]. In its broadest sense, photocatalysis for synthetic purposes concerns the use of light to induce chemical transformations of organic or inorganic substrates that are transparent in the wavelength range employed. The radiation is absorbed by a photocatalyst, whose electronically excited states are able to trigger the chemical reactions of interest. The overall process can be considered photocatalytic when i) the photoactive species is regenerated in its initial state at the end of a reaction cycle, just as happens in thermal catalysis; ii) the photocatalyst is consumed less than in stoichiometric amounts, while light is a stoichiometric reagent. Selectivity is a key issue in photocatalytic processes aimed at th