Prof. Horst Kisch
Institute of Inorganic Chemistry, University of Erlangen-Nürnberg, Erlangen, Germany

Horst Kisch studied chemistry at the University of Vienna, Austria. From 1968 to 1984 he worked at the Max-Planck-Institut für Strahlenchemie (now Max-Planck-Institut für Chemische Energiekonversion) in Mülheim a.d. Ruhr, Germany. After his "habilitation" in Organic Chemistry at the University of Dortmund, Germany, he became Professor of Inorganic Chemistry at the University of Erlangen-Nürnberg, Germany, in 1984. He retired in 2008. His interests developed from catalytic activation of 1,2-diazenes over weak charge-transfer interactions in redox active ion pair complexes to semiconductor photocatalysis. On the latter topic he wrote a first text book.

Speech Title: Mechanistic and synthetic aspects of semiconductor photocatalysis
Abstract: Photocatalysis at semiconductor powders has developed into the most advanced field of chemical solar energy utilization. The role of the photocatalyst is at least bifunctional. It enables a proper assembling of substrates through adsorption at the surface-solvent layer and it catalyzes photoinduced, concerted reduction and oxidation reactions with a great variety of donor and acceptor substrates. In the lecture we shall discuss (i) a classification of reaction types, (ii) a general 3-step mechanistic model, and (ii) perspectives for Organic Synthesis and Environmental Chemistry.

Keywords: Photocatalysis; semiconductor powders, visible light