| Abstract: | Photozymes are novel water-soluble polymers usually constructed by copolymerization of a mixture of water-soluble and water-insoluble comonomers, some of which contain chromophores capable of absorbing light and transmitting the excitation energy by means of the antenna effect to selected traps. The interactions between the hydrophobic and hydrophilic groups in the polymer with water cause the formation of hypercoiled pseudomicellar conformations of the polymer coil, leading to hydrophobic regions or pockets in the interior of the macromolecular coil. If the water contains hydrophobic organic molecules, they will locate preferentially in these hydrophobic polymer microdomains, and in the presence of light they can be photochemically transformed into useful products with high efficiency and selectivity. This paper reviews some recent results on photochemical reactions initiated by photoinduced electron transfer in these novel systems, and their possible commercial applications to pollution abatement, and solar production of hydrogen from water. |
