Visible-light-driven domino reactions toward nitrogen-containing heterocycles

Abstract

Nitrogen-containing heterocycles are crucial structural motifs in pharmaceuticals, natural products, and functional materials, with broad applications in medicinal chemistry. The emergence of visible-light photocatalysis has revolutionized their synthesis, offering an environmentally benign approach that operates under mild reaction conditions. Specifically, visible-light-induced domino reactions facilitate multi-step tandem transformations via mechanisms such as single-electron transfer (SET), energy transfer (EnT), or hydrogen atom transfer (HAT), minimizing intermediate isolation and purification steps. This review highlights recent advances in visible-light-induced domino reactions for the synthesis of nitrogen-containing heterocycles. It focuses on key strategies, including nitrogen-centered radical-mediated C–N bond formation and carbon-centered radical-initiated cyclization, discussing their mechanisms, current limitations, and future prospects to provide insights for advancing green synthesis and pharmaceutical science.