Photogeneration of Organic Free Radicals in Liquid Solutions

In this brief review we consider the generation of free radicals by irradiation with UV-light solutions of compounds with weak chemical bonds. Bond dissociation energies (BDE) are compared with the energies of photons. Light sources used in industry and academia are listed. Free radicals can be produced by photodissociation and by bimolecular chemical reactions between the electronically- excited state of a molecule and a quencher. Important examples are presented. A special effort is devoted to light-emitting diodes (LED) which gain a wide application in this century. We cited books on the free radicals and photochemistry as an introduction as well as recent publications dated 2020.