Photocatalyzed generation of acyl radicals from aryl/alkyl acyl halides via nucleophilic substitution

Abstract

Herein, we introduce a nucleophilic catalysis strategy based on a 1-methylpyridine-2(1H)-thione (MPT) catalyst, which mediates the in situ generation of photoactive intermediates from various acyl halides. This strategy enables the efficient formation of both aryl and alkyl acyl radicals upon visible-light irradiation, including those derived from otherwise unreactive alkyl acyl fluorides/chlorides.