Historical Development of Inorganic Photochemistry

Abstract

In this chapter, a brief summary of some key facts that marked the history of photochemistry is presented. Photochemistry is defined by the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) as the field of chemistry concerned with the chemical effects of light. Naturally, the evolution of photochemistry as a scientific field occurred concomitantly and benefited from the development of other fields in chemistry, physics, and engineering. Along the centuries, a myriad of discoveries and theories developed by different scientists have contributed for the understanding of excited state properties of different compounds. Light-induced chemical changes are in the core of the creation of the Universe, allow the existence of life as we know, and are fundamental to many modern technologies. Thus, the concepts and developments involved in this field continue to motivate scientists of different backgrounds. In the following sections, some concepts and findings that contributed for the field are discussed: in the first section, an introduction about how photochemistry is present in our daily life, along with early scientific observations is exposed. In the second part, the consequences of the quantum mechanics in the interpretation of photochemical and photophysical properties are summarized, and, then in the Sect. 1.3, some instrumental developments are highlighted. Finally, in the last section particular attention is given for the photochemical properties of inorganic compounds.