Visible-Light Photosensitized Aryl and Alkyl Decarboxylative Carbon-Heteroatom and Carbon-Carbon Bond Formations

A general strategy to access both aryl and alkyl radicals by photosensitized decarboxylation of the corresponding carboxylic acids esters has been developed. An energy transfer mediated homolysis of unsymmetrical sigma-bonds for a concerted fragmentation/decarboxylation process is involved. As a result, an independent aryl/alkyl radical generation step enables a series of key C-X and C-C bond forming reactions by simply changing the radical trapping agent.