Metal-free reductive cleavage of C-N and S-N bonds by photoactivated electron transfer from a neutral organic donor

Article abstract of DOI:10.1002/anie.201306543

A photoactivated neutral organic super electron donor cleaves challenging arenesulfonamides derived from dialkylamines at room temperature. It also cleaves a)ArC-NR and b)ArN-C bonds. This study also highlights the assistance given to these cleavage reactions by the groups attached to N in (a) and to C in (b), by lowering LUMO energies and by stabilizing the products of fragmentation. Radical fragmentations: Electron transfer from the photoactivated neutral electron donor 1 delivers high yields of S-N and C-N cleavage products for a range of nitrogen-containing species. These reactions proceed at room temperature and under mild reaction conditions in the absence of any metal reagents. DMF=N,N-dimethylformamide, Ts=4-toluenesulfonyl.