Visible-light-induced addition of carboxymethanide to styrene from monochloroacetic acid

Visible-Light-Induced Stereoselective Radical trans-Iodoalkylation of Terminal Alkyne with Iodoform

We describe herein a novel stereoselective trans-iodoalkylation protocol by using three components of nucleophilic dicarbonyl compounds, iodoform and terminal alkynes. The generation of tertiary carbon radical species under mild reaction conditions allows this radical addition and stereoselective iodine atom transfer sequence with terminal alkyne to access highly synthetic applicable disubstituted vinyl iodide. The synthetic application of the present three-component photochemical protocol was demonstrated by the gram-scale reaction and product derivatization.

Divergent functionalization of alkenes enabled by photoredox activation of CDFA and α-halo carboxylic acids

Herein we present our studies on the solvent-controlled difunctionalization of alkenes utilizing chlorodifluoroacetic acid (CDFA) and α-halo carboxylic acids for the synthesis of γ-lactones, γ-lactams and α,α-difluoroesters. Mechanistic insights revealed that photocatalytic reductive mesolytic cleavage of the C-X bond delivers elusive α-carboxyl alkyl radicals. In the presence of an olefin molecule, this species acts as a unique bifunctional intermediate allowing for stipulated formation of C-O, C-N and C-H bonds on Giese-type adducts via single electron transfer (SET) or hydrogen atom transfer (HAT) events. These protocols exhibit great efficiency across a broad spectrum of readily available α-halo carboxylic acids and are amenable to scalability in both batch and flow. To demonstrate the versatility of this concept, the synthesis of (±)-boivinianin A, its fluorinated analog and eupomatilone-6 natural products was successfully accomplished.