Visible light photoredox-catalyzed deoxygenation of alcohols

Abstract

Carbon–oxygen single bonds are ubiquitous in natural products whereas efficient methods for their reductive defunctionalization are rare. In this work an environmentally benign protocol for the activation of carbon–oxygen single bonds of alcohols towards a reductive bond cleavage under visible light photocatalysis was developed. Alcohols were activated as 3,5-bis(trifluoromethyl)-substituted benzoates and irradiation with blue light in the presence of [Ir(ppy)2(dtb-bpy)](PF6) as visible light photocatalyst and Hünig’s base as sacrificial electron donor in an acetonitrile/water mixture generally gave good to excellent yields of the desired defunctionalized compounds. Functional group tolerance is high but the protocol developed is limited to benzylic, α-carbonyl, and α-cyanoalcohols; with other alcohols a slow partial C–F bond reduction in the 3,5-bis(trifluoromethyl)benzoate moiety occurs.