Decarboxylative Intramolecular Arene Alkylation Using N-(Acyloxy)phthalimides, an Organic Photocatalyst, and Visible Light

J Org Chem. 2019 Jul 5;84(13):8360-8379. doi: 10.1021/acs.joc.9b00432. Epub 2019 Mar 27.

Abstract

An intramolecular arene alkylation reaction has been developed using the organic photocatalyst 4CzIPN, visible light, and N-(acyloxy)phthalimides as radical precursors. Reaction conditions were optimized via high-throughput experimentation, and electron-rich and electron-deficient arenes and heteroarenes are viable reaction substrates. This reaction enables access to a diverse set of fused, partially saturated cores which are of high interest in synthetic and medicinal chemistry.