Intersystem crossing (ISC) plays a key role in the photolysis processes of oxetanes formed by benzophenone (BP)-like and thymine structures.
Owing to their balanced ring strain and the high regioselectivity of their reactions, oxetanes have emerged as versatile building blocks for heterocycle synthesis.
Despite numerous potential advantages of oxetanes, their restricted synthetic accessibility and propensity to ring-opening hamper their wide application in drug design. In this research, we have shown our solutions for this problem.
3-Aryloxetan-3-ols and 3-arylazetidin-3-ols can be selectively activated to form carbocations and allow reaction with alcohols to form ethers with the 4-membered heterocycles.
A method for the direct arylation of oxetanes was developed to address challenges with previous photoredox C–H arylation techniques, including inconsistent light sources, hazardous solvents, expensive photocatalysts, and high oxetane loadings.