Decarbonylative radical conjugate addition of aliphatic aldehydes for alkylation of electron-deficient alkenes

Abstract

A convenient metal-free decarbonylative radical conjugate addition of aliphatic aldehydes to electron-deficient alkenes is developed. With DTBP as an oxidant and radical-initiator, this reaction smoothly converts α-unsubstituted, α-mono-substituted and α-di-substituted aliphatic aldehydes into the corresponding primary, secondary and tertiary alkyl radicals, and subsequently allows for the cascade construction of C(sp3)C(sp3) bond via radical conjugate addition.