Professor Xiaoming Feng and Professor Weidi Cao's team reported that Lewis acid promoted the asymmetric radical addition reaction of ketones. “Photocatalysis opens up a new window for carbonyl chemistry. Despite a multitude of photochemical reactions of carbonyl compounds, visible light-induced catalytic asymmetric transformations remain elusive and pose a formidable challenge. Accordingly, the development of simple, efficient, and economic catalytic systems is the ideal pursuit for chemists. Herein, we report an enantioselective radical photoaddition to ketones through a Lewis acid-enabled photoredox catalysis wherein the in situ formed chiral N,N′-dioxide/Sc(III)–ketone complex serves as a temporary photocatalyst to trigger single-electron transfer oxidation of silanes for the generation of nucleophilic radical species, including primary, secondary, and tertiary alkyl radicals, giving various enantioenriched aza-heterocycle-based tertiary alcohols in good to excellent yields and enantioselectivities. The results of electronparamagnetic resonance (EPR) and high-resolution mass spectrum (HRMS) measurements provided favorable evidence for the stereocontrolled radical addition process involved in this reaction.” (Abstract)

The research findings were published under the title of “Enantioselective Radical Addition to Ketones through Lewis Acid-Enabled Photoredox Catalysis” in Journal of the American Chemical Society on Nov. 22. Xiaoming Feng and Weidi Cao from the College of Chemistry are the co corresponding authors of this article, and Dr. Liuzhen Hou is the first author. The research was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China and the Science and Technology Department of Sichuan Province.

https://pubs.acs.org/doi/full/10.1021/jacs.2c09691