Recent advances in phosphoranyl radical-mediated deoxygenative functionalisation

Abstract

Alcohols and carboxylic acids have been established as versatile building blocks in the assembly of various carbon frameworks. The deoxygenative functionalisation is one of the most attractive approaches for the conversion of these abundant materials into high-value products. However, the direct deoxygenative transformation under mild conditions has long been a challenging task in organic synthesis due to the lack of efficient methods for the activation of strong C–O bonds (102 kcal mol⁻¹). Recently, the strategy of visible light photocatalytic phosphoranyl radical fragmentation provides a novel and powerful platform for C–O, N–O and SO bond activation. This highlight mainly discusses recent breakthroughs in phosphoranyl radical-mediated deoxygenative functionalisations of alcohols, carboxylic acids, oximes and sulfoxides with a particular emphasis on reaction scopes and mechanism.