Decarboxylative cross-nucleophile coupling via ligand-to-metal charge transfer photoexcitation of Cu(II) carboxylates.

Reactions that enable carbon-nitrogen, carbon-oxygen and carbon-carbon bond formation lie at the heart of synthetic chemistry. However, substrate prefunctionalization is often needed to effect such transformations without forcing reaction conditions. The development of direct coupling methods for abundant feedstock chemicals is therefore highly desirable for the rapid construction of complex molecular scaffolds. Here we report a copper-mediated, net-oxidative decarboxylative coupling of carboxylic acids with diverse nucleophiles under visible-light irradiation. Preliminary mechanistic studies suggest that the relevant chromophore in this reaction is a Cu(II) carboxylate species assembled in situ. We propose that visible-light excitation to a ligand-to-metal charge transfer (LMCT) state results in a radical decarboxylation process that initiates the oxidative cross-coupling. The reaction is applicable to a wide variety of coupling partners, including complex drug molecules, suggesting that this strategy for cross-nucleophile coupling would facilitate rapid compound library synthesis for the discovery of new pharmaceutical agents.

Enantioselective Synthesis of γ-Oxycarbonyl Motifs by Conjugate Addition of Photogenerated α-Alkoxy Radicals.

Enantioselective catalytic Giese addition of photogenerated α-alkoxy radicals to acyl pyrazolidinones can be accomplished using a tandem Sc(III) Lewis acid/photoredox catalyst system. Surprisingly, the excited-state oxidation potential was not the only important variable, and the optimal photocatalyst was not the strongest oxidant screened. Our results show that both the oxidation and reduction potentials of the photocatalyst can be important for the reaction outcome, highlighting the importance of holistic considerations in designing photochemical reactions.