Photocatalytic Activity of Diverse Organic Radical Anions: Catalyst Discovery Enables Cleavage of Strong C(sp2)–N and C(sp2)–O Bonds

02 June 2021, Version 1
This content is a preprint and has not undergone peer review at the time of posting.

Abstract

Herein, we leverage electrochemistry to examine the photocatalytic activity of a range of structurally diverse persistent radical anions and find that many are effective electrophotocatalysts. These studies uncover a new electron-primed photoredox catalyst capable of promoting the reductive cleavage of strong C(sp2)–N and C(sp2)–O bonds even when reduction potentials hundreds of mV more negative than Li0 are required. We illustrated several examples of the synthetic utility of these deeply reducing but otherwise safe and mild catalytic conditions. Finally, we employed electrochemical current measurements to perform a reaction progress kinetic analysis that revealed that the improved activity of this new catalyst was a consequence of an enhanced stability profile.

Keywords

electron-primed photoredox catalysis
electrophotocatalysis
photoredox catalysts
radical anions
reaction progess kinetic analysis
electrocatalysis

Supplementary materials

Title
Description
Actions
Title
TOC graphic
Description
Actions

Comments

Comments are not moderated before they are posted, but they can be removed by the site moderators if they are found to be in contravention of our Commenting Policy [opens in a new tab] - please read this policy before you post. Comments should be used for scholarly discussion of the content in question. You can find more information about how to use the commenting feature here [opens in a new tab] .
This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy [opens in a new tab] and Terms of Service [opens in a new tab] apply.