Recently, the research group led by Prof. Wu Xuesong published an online paper entitled “Selective deoxygenative alkylation of alcohols via photocatalytic domino radical fragmentations” on Nature Communications. The first author is Doctoral student Guo Hongmei and the corresponding author is Prof. Wu Xuesong of the School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Huazhong University of Science and Technology.

The delivery of alkyl radicals through photocatalytic deoxygenation of primary alcohols under mild conditions is a so far unmet challenge. In this report, we present a one-pot strategy for deoxygenative Giese reaction of alcohols with electron-deficient alkenes, by using xanthate salts as alcohol-activating groups for radical generation under visible-light photoredox conditions in the presence of triphenylphosphine. The convenient generation of xanthate salts and high reactivity of sequential C–S/C–O bond homolytic cleavage enable efficient deoxygenation of primary, secondary and tertiary alcohols with diverse functionality and structure to generate the corresponding alkyl radicals, including methyl radical. Moreover, chemoselective radical monodeoxygenation of diols is achieved via selective formation of xanthate salts.

Link to the paper: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-021-25702-4