Ambient and aerobic carbon–carbon bond cleavage toward α-ketoester synthesis by transition-metal-free photocatalysis

Abstract

The α-oxoesterification of the CC double bond in readily available enaminones enabling efficient synthesis of α-ketoesters is developed. The reactions showing general tolerance to the reactions of primary and secondary alcohols proceed well under air via Rose Bengal (RB)-based photocatalysis. Particularly, this mild synthetic method has been discovered to tolerate various polyhydroxylated substrates such as phenolic alcohol, diols and triols with an excellent selectivity of mono-oxoesterification. What is more noteworthy is that α-ketoester functionalized 16-dehydropregnenolone acetate resulting from the elaboration on a natural product has been obtained practically.