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Updated: May 26, 2026

Light-driven Enzymatic Decarboxylation
Published on: May 22, 2016
Reactivity and mechanistic insight into visible-light-induced aerobic cross-dehydrogenative coupling reaction by
Qiang Liu1, Ya-Nan Li, Hui-Hui Zhang
1Key Laboratory of Photochemical Conversion and Optoelectronic Materials, Technical Institute of Physics and Chemistry, The Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, PR China.
Abstract:
With visible-light irradiation, a mild, simple, and efficient metal-free photocatalytic system for the facile construction of sp(3)-sp(3) C-C bonds between tertiary amines and activated C-H bonds has been achieved. Spectroscopic study and product analysis demonstrate for the first time that photoinduced electron transfer from N-aryl tetrahydroisoquinolines to eosin Y bis(tetrabutylammonium salt) (TBA-eosin Y) takes place to generate TBA-eosin Y radical anion, which can subsequently react with nucleophiles and molecular oxygen. More strikingly, electron spin resonance (ESR) measurements provide direct evidence for the formation of superoxide radical anions (O(2)(-.)) rather than singlet oxygen ((1)O(2)) during visible-light irradiation. This active species is therefore believed to be responsible for the large rate of acceleration of the aerobic photocatalytic reactions.
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