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Updated: Dec 11, 2025

Isolating Free Carbenes, their Mixed Dimers and Organic Radicals
Published on: April 19, 2019
Decarboxylative Borylation of Stabilized and Activated Carbon Radicals
Qiang Zhang1, Xiaojuan Li1, Weigang Zhang1
1State Key Laboratory of Coordination Chemistry, Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Advanced Organic Materials, Collaborative Innovation Center of Advanced Microstructures, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Nanjing University, Nanjing, 210023, China.
Abstract:
Redox-active esters (RAEs) as active radical precursors have been extensively studied for C-B bond formations. However, the analogous transformations of stabilized radicals from the corresponding acid precursors remain challenging owing to the strong preference towards single-electron oxidation to the stable carbocations. This work describes a general strategy for rapid access to various aliphatic and aromatic boronic esters by mild photoinduced decarboxylative borylation. Both aryl and alkyl radicals could be generated from the leaving group-assisted N-hydroxybenzimidoyl chloride esters, even α-CF3 substituted substrates could be activated for further elaboration.
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