Visible light-promoted dihydroxylation of styrenes with water and dioxygen

Abstract

An efficient visible light promoted metal-free dihydroxylation of styrenes with water and dioxygen has been developed for the construction of vicinal alcohols. The protocol was operationally simple with a broad substrate scope. The mechanistic studies demonstrated that one of the hydroxyl groups came from water and the other one came from molecular oxygen. Additionally, the β-alkyoxy alcohols could also be obtained using a similar strategy.