| Abstract: | This article considers what happens when the energy required for a compound to react is supplied by an irradiation lamp instead of by a Bunsen burner. For this purpose real examples are selected from three typical groups of cases. The respective answers obtained should indicate significant moves in organic photochemistry which may be expected to affect the further development of chemistry as a whole in the near future. During this tour d'horizon particular attention is paid to photochemical processes in solids or solvent matrices, light-induced reactions are especially emphasized as key reactions in (natural product) syntheses, and a strong case is made for interpreting the reactions of electronically excited molecules in terms of Salem correlation diagrams. |
