Mechanism and Site Selectivity in Visible-Light Photocatalyzed C-H Functionalization: Insights from DFT Calculations

Visible-light photocatalyzed (VLPC) late-stage C-H functionalization is a powerful addition to the chemical synthesis toolkit. VLPC has a demonstrated potential for discovery of elusive and valuable transformations, particularly in functionalization of bioactive heterocycles. In order to fully harvest the potential of VLPC in the context of complex molecule synthesis, a thorough understanding of the elementary processes involved is crucial. This would enable more rational design of suitable reagents and catalysts, as well as prediction of activated C-H sites for functionalization. Such knowledge is essential when VLPC is to be employed in retrosynthetic analysis of complex molecules. Herein, we present a density functional theory (DFT) study of mechanistic details in the C-H functionalization of bioactive heterocycles exemplified by the methylation of the antifungal agent voriconazole. Moreover, we show that readily computed atomic charges can predict major site-selectivity in good agreement with experimental studies and thus be informative tools for the identification of active C-H functionalization sites in synthetic planning.