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Updated: May 20, 2026

Light-driven Enzymatic Decarboxylation
Published on: May 22, 2016
Visible-Light-Induced Dual Iron/Eosin Y Catalysis for Direct Dehydrogenation of Saturated Heterocycles, Alcohols,
Zhonghui Wu1,2, Lingjie Xu1,2, Cheng Le2,3
1College of Chemistry, Fuzhou University, Fuzhou, 350108, China.
Abstract:
The development of unified and direct dehydrogenation strategies for ubiquitous saturated feedstocks, including heterocycles, alcohols, esters, and amides, holds significant value. Herein, we report a visible-light-induced direct dehydrogenation of six classes of substrates enabled by an iron catalyst. Preliminary mechanistic studies suggest that photoexcitation of Eosin Y initiates single-electron transfer to the iron catalyst, followed by hydrogen atom transfer and subsequent dehydrogenation. This method provides a practical platform for the construction of diverse molecular libraries.
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