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Updated: Mar 22, 2026

Atom Transfer Radical Polymerization of Functionalized Vinyl Monomers Using Perylene as a Visible Light Photocatalyst
Published on: April 22, 2016
Visible-light-enabled excited-state dearomatization reactions
Muzi Li1, Yuan-Zheng Cheng1, Shu-Li You1
1New Cornerstone Science Laboratory, State Key Laboratory of Organometallic Chemistry, Shanghai Institute of Organic Chemistry, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 345 Lingling Lu, Shanghai 200032, China.
None:
Dearomatization reactions stand as a cornerstone strategy for constructing pharmacologically pivotal saturated rings. Photoexcitation reshapes the electron distribution within the frontier molecular orbitals of aromatics, thereby unlocking dearomatization pathways inaccessible in the ground state and furnishing structurally distinct molecular motifs. Contemporary synthetic methodologies leverage three discrete mechanistic paradigms to achieve this electronic activation: direct excitation, energy-transfer photocatalysis, and exciplex formation. These precisely tuned energy-delivery modes enable the dearomatization of a diverse array of (hetero)arenes, including highly robust substrates such as naphthalenes and benzenes, under mild reaction conditions. This review spotlights recent representative advances in these excited-state transformations. We envision that this synopsis will fuel ongoing innovation in the burgeoning field of photochemical dearomatization.
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