Introducing Phenalenyl-Based Organic Lewis Acid as a Photocatalyst to Facilitate Oxidative Azolation of Unactivated Arenes

Org Lett. 2023 Mar 24;25(11):1895-1900. doi: 10.1021/acs.orglett.3c00409. Epub 2023 Mar 9.

Abstract

By revealing the robust photooxidant properties of phenalenyl-based organic Lewis acid, we have introduced this moiety as an effective organophotocatalyst for the oxidative azolation of unactivated and feedstock arenes. In addition to its tolerance for various functional groups and scalability, this photocatalyst was shown to be promising for the defluorinative azolation of fluoroarenes.