Thiocyanate radical mediated dehydration of aldoximes with visible light and air

Abstract

We developed a new means of activating aldoximes by an in situ generated thiocyanate radical from ammonium thiocyanate and molecular oxygen at room temperature. With a catalytic amount of organic dye aizenuranine as the photocatalyst, the dehydration of aldoximes proceeds smoothly under visible light irradiation, providing a simple to handle, excellent functional group tolerance, and metal-free protocol for a wide range of nitriles.