This review focuses upon major achievements and recent advancements in the development of photoactive molecules which, under controlled illumination, release acidic groups either in solution or at the solid state. Successful photoacid generators are described the design of which are based on ionic, benzyl ester, imino ester, spiropyran and terarylene frameworks and the mechanism of acid generation in each case is discussed in detail. The development of such systems towards applications in lithography, surface etching, polymer design and two photon absorption processes are presented in order to give a state of the art overview of the development of new photoacid generators in the last three decades.

这篇综述着重于光敏分子发展的主要成就和最新进展，这些光敏分子在受控照射下以溶液或固态释放酸性基团。描述了成功的光产酸剂，其设计基于离子，苄基酯，亚氨基酯，螺并吡喃和亚芳基骨架，并详细讨论了每种情况下的产酸机理。提出了针对光刻，表面蚀刻，聚合物设计和两种光子吸收过程的应用的这种系统的开发，以便给出最近三十年来新型光致产酸剂发展的最新技术概况。