Furfuraldehyde : From plant harvest to light harvest?

Furfuraldehyde, which can be isolated from biomass such as corn, straw or wood can be used as a reagent in the preparation of valuable molecules. This short review emphasizes the utilization of furfural as a reagent in the preparation of functional molecules to be used in photovoltaic devices such as Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells or Organic Solar Cells. Different options are possible, the first one being the use of the furan ring as a latent carboxylic acid moiety in metal complexes to be used as sensitizers. The second is to use the furan ring as a part of the functional molecule. Owing to the rich chemistry of furan rings, an interesting diversity of chemical structures can be obtained from furfural through chemical synthesis.

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