PHOTOINDUCED ELECTRON-TRANSFER IN PHOTOZYME SYSTEMS

Photozymes are novel water-soluble polymers usually constructed by cop olymerization of a mixture of water-soluble and water-insoluble comono mers, some of which contain chromophores capable of absorbing light an d transmitting the excitation energy by means of the antenna effect to selected traps. The interactions between the hydrophobic and hydrophi lic groups in the polymer with water cause the formation of hypercoile d pseudomicellar conformations of the polymer coil, leading to hydroph obic regions or pockets in the interior of the macromolecular coil. If the water contains hydrophobic organic molecules, they will locate pr eferentially in these hydrophobic polymer microdomains, and in the pre sence of light they can be photochemically transformed into useful pro ducts with high efficiency and selectivity. This paper reviews some re cent results on photochemical reactions initiated by photoinduced elec tron transfer in these novel systems, and their possible commercial ap plications to pollution abatement, and solar production of hydrogen fr om water.