The hydroacylation of Michael acceptors constitutes a useful tool for the formation of new C-C bonds. In this work, an environmentally friendly procedure was developed, utilizing 4cyanobenzaldehyde as the photoinitiator and household bulbs as the irradiation source. A great variety of substrates was well-tolerated, leading to good yields, and mechanistic experiments were performed to elucidate the catalyst's possible mechanistic pathway. Moreover, the inherent selectivity challenge regarding α,α-disubstituted aldehydes (decarbonylation problem) was studied and addressed.
Keywords: 4-cyanobenzaldehyde; Michael acceptors; hydroacylation; photochemistry; photoinitiator.
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