Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)In the past decades, the physicochemical properties of electron donor acceptor, EDA, complexes (also called charge-transfer, CT, complexes) have been extensively studied, although their synthetic applications have been somewhat limited. However, in recent years, this scenario has started to change as an increasing number of examples have been reported. In this regard, this review aims to present and discuss the main aspects associated with the physicochemical properties of these complexes and a selection of synthetic photochemical applications in organic chemistry.6313891407CAPESCNPq [158438/2012-4, 475448/2013-8, 458416/2014-2]FAPESP [2014/50249-8, 2015/17141-1, 2013/09680-4]CNPq (INCT-Catalise)Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)