Recent advances in photoorganocatalysis (2019–2023)

From 2008 until now, the advent of photochemistry has offered a plethora of synthetic opportunities to chemists worldwide. The ability of light to generate reactive species under mild reaction conditions provided access to unexplored reaction pathways. Lately, the development of photochemical reactions employing small organic molecules as catalysts has increased. Serving the basic principles of Green Chemistry, small organic molecules have proven to be an excellent alternative to the use of metal-based complexes, performing elegant organic transformations. Their use is based on their ability to mediate photochemical events, such as Single Electron Transfer (SET), Energy Transfer (EnT) and Hydrogen Atom Transfer (HAT). Furthermore, there have been reports on the capability to form Electron Donor–Acceptor (EDA) complexes facilitating challenging organic transformations. Herein, we will focus on the photochemical reactions promoted by small organic molecules during the last 5 years (2019–2023).