{"term":{"id":"16199","title":"caged compound","longtitle":"IUPAC Gold Book - caged compound","doi":"10.1351\/goldbook.16199","code":"16199","status":"current","definitions":[{"id":1,"text":"Molecular species that can rapidly be converted from inactive into active form by light. Typically, photocaged compounds have a covalently attached group that can be photocleaved by electromagnetic radiation of a specific wavelength.","notes":{"1":"Electromagnetic radiation activated caged compounds (photocages) are widely used in biochemistry for a rapid photoinduced introduction of a variety of compounds to biological systems with spatial and temporal control, allowing the time-resolved study of the ensuing events.","2":"An example is the photorelease of nucleotides from their attachment to 1-(4,5-dimethoxy-2-nitrophenyl) ethyl ester."},"links":[{"term":"photoremovable protecting group","url":"https:\/\/goldbook.iupac.org\/\/terms\/view\/16214"}],"sources":["PAC, 2007, 79, 293. 'Glossary of terms used in photochemistry, 3rd edition (IUPAC Recommendations 2006)' on page 311 (https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1351\/pac200779030293)"]}],"altoutputs":{"html":"https:\/\/goldbook.iupac.org\/terms\/view\/16199\/html","xml":"https:\/\/goldbook.iupac.org\/terms\/view\/16199\/xml","plain":"https:\/\/goldbook.iupac.org\/terms\/view\/16199\/plain"},"citation":"Citation: 'caged compound' in IUPAC Compendium of Chemical Terminology, 5th ed. International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry; 2025. Online version 5.0.0, 2025. 10.1351\/goldbook.16199","license":"The IUPAC Gold Book is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike CC BY-SA 4.0 International (https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-sa\/4.0\/) for individual terms.","collection":"If you are interested in licensing the Gold Book for commercial use, please contact the IUPAC Executive Director at executivedirector@iupac.org .","disclaimer":"The International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) is continuously reviewing and, where needed, updating terms in the Compendium of Chemical Terminology (the IUPAC Gold Book). Users of these terms are encouraged to include the version of a term with its use and to check regularly for updates to term definitions that you are using.","accessed":"2026-06-10T09:54:45+00:00"}}