Synergistic photoredox and copper catalysis by diode-like coordination polymer with twisted and polar copper-dye conjugation

Nat Commun. 2020 Oct 23;11(1):5384. doi: 10.1038/s41467-020-19172-3.

Abstract

Synergistic photoredox and copper catalysis confers new synthetic possibilities in the pharmaceutical field, but is seriously affected by the consumptive fluorescence quenching of Cu(II). By decorating bulky auxiliaries into a photoreductive triphenylamine-based ligand to twist the conjugation between the triphenylamine-based ligand and the polar Cu(II)-carboxylate node in the coordination polymer, we report a heterogeneous approach to directly confront this inherent problem. The twisted and polar Cu(II)-dye conjunction endows the coordination polymer with diode-like photoelectronic behaviours, which hampers the inter- and intramolecular photoinduced electron transfer from the triphenylamine-moiety to the Cu(II) site and permits reversed-directional ground-state electronic conductivity, rectifying the productive loop circuit for synergising photoredox and copper catalysis in pharmaceutically valuable decarboxylative C(sp3)-heteroatom couplings. The well-retained Cu(II) sites during photoirradiation exhibit unique inner-spheric modulation effects, which endow the couplings with adaptability to different types of nucleophiles and radical precursors under concise reaction conditions, and distinguish the multi-olefinic moieties of biointeresting steride derivatives in their late-stage trifluoromethylation-chloration difunctionalisation.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't