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A world expert in photokinetics from Âéw¶¹´«Ã½ (Âéw¶¹´«Ã½) Leicester has challenged the understanding of a near 200-year-old scientific discipline in a new book published by one of the world’s leading academic publishers.  

You may not be aware of it but photokinetic reactions happen all around you. From your brightly coloured t-shirt fading in the sunlight, to the adaptive glasses and lenses that darken outdoors, light has the power to change chemical compounds.  

But the study of how these changes occur and how they can be measured is very complex. For nearly two centuries, there has been very limited literature on accurately measuring or defining how a photochemical reaction works.  

That is, until now, as Dr Mounir Maafi, a senior lecturer at Âéw¶¹´«Ã½’s Leicester School of Pharmacy, has put forward a new framework for understanding, measuring and controlling photochemical reactions.  

“Reactions should behave in a certain way,” Dr Maafi said. “This is known as the kinetic order. When you think of an egg cooking, you see it go from a viscous liquid to a solid because of heat-induced chemical transformation. That’s obeying an order of thermal reaction and there are hundreds of scientific books on how thermal orders work.  

“Photochemistry is more than 150 years old but there hasn’t been any literature explaining exactly how such reactions work scientifically, which is peculiar in physical chemistry, and became something I wanted to solve.” 

Published by Springer Nature,  introduces the concept of Φ-order kinetics (pronounced Phi-order), which accurately describes how molecules break down when exposed to light.  

This new framework can be used to model the degradation of drugs such as dacarbazine, which is used to treat melanoma or Hodgkin Lymphoma, or blood pressure drug, nifedipine, when exposed to light. 

Dr Maafi hopes that his new framework will become the standardised model and provide scientists in other disciplines with the means to study chemical reactions under light, as well as provide practical pharmaceutical uses, such as being able to predict the shelf-life of medication.     

“This work brings a new standardisation framework for the kinetics of light-driven systems. New concepts, methods and procedures, laid out in the book, will unlock more with photochemistry, such as confidently treating data, determining reaction features and defining quantum yields. 

“These methods allow us to properly describe and control photochemical reactions. Once you can do that, you can apply the science across many different fields and technologies.” 

Dr Maafi’s book is the first singly-authored monograph to be published in Springer Nature by a Âéw¶¹´«Ã½ academic since Âéw¶¹´«Ã½ received university status in 1992.   

The monograph took three years to write and encompasses more than 20 years of research, including tens of peer-reviewed scientific journals penned by Dr Maafi over two decades.

Dr Maafi added: “I wanted to reach the next generation of researchers,” he said. “This book can act as a reference point – almost a new bible for photokinetics – particularly for students and early-career researchers entering the field.” 

“It was a long process, involving internal assessments and external reviewers by the publisher, but seeing this monograph published was a very special moment because it’s the first monograph to come out of the established Leicester School of Pharmacy”.   

“This is the first book, but it won’t be the last. The journey of rewriting and developing this subject has only just started.”