Issue 39, 2020

Light opens a new window for N-heterocyclic carbene catalysis

Abstract

N-Heterocyclic carbenes (NHCs) are efficient Lewis basic catalysts for the umpolung of various polarized unsaturated compounds usually including aldehydes, imines, acyl chlorides and activated esters. NHC catalysis involving electron pair transfer steps has been extensively studied; however, NHC catalysis through single-electron transfer (SET) processes, despite having the potential to achieve chemical transformations of inert chemical bonds and using green reagents, has long been a challenging task in organic synthesis. In parallel, visible-light-induced photocatalysis and photoexcitation have been established as powerful tools to facilitate sustainable organic synthesis, as they enable the generation of various reactive radical intermediates under extremely mild conditions. Recently, a number of elegant visible-light-induced, NHC-catalyzed transformations were developed for accessing valuable organic compounds. As a result, this minireview will highlight the recent advances in this field.

Graphical abstract: Light opens a new window for N-heterocyclic carbene catalysis

Article information

Article type
Minireview
Submitted
30 iyn 2020
Accepted
08 avq 2020
First published
11 avq 2020
This article is Open Access

All publication charges for this article have been paid for by the Royal Society of Chemistry
Creative Commons BY-NC license

Chem. Sci., 2020,11, 10605-10613

Light opens a new window for N-heterocyclic carbene catalysis

J. Liu, X. Xing, J. Huang, L. Lu and W. Xiao, Chem. Sci., 2020, 11, 10605 DOI: 10.1039/D0SC03595E

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