Light‐driven Reactivity and Molecular Sensors

Alessandro Bismuto, recipient of the FCI-Dozentenpreis, conducts research on pnictogens at the interface between main-group and transition-metal chemistry—especially antimony and bismuth compounds. He uses them in catalytic and photochemical processes, builds functional materials from them, and employs them for light-induced reactions.

Heavy pnictogen double bonds are challenging

The synthesis and subsequent activation of multiple bonds between heavy Group 15 elements, specifically antimony and bismuth, have historically posed a remarkable challenge in main-group chemistry.¹⁾ While azobenzenes and diphosphenes have been extensively characterized and applied, their heavier congeners, distibenes and dibismuthenes, remained largely underexplored for over a century. The primary obstacle to their development lies in fundamental physical constraints. Heavier pnictogens suffer from ineffective orbital overlap, which limits the capacity of these elements to construct stable p-systems. Furthermore, relativistic effects in the heaviest elements lead to a contraction of the 6s orbital, particularly in bismuth, which results in a rise in the energy of the p orb

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