Visible-Light-Induced Imine Hydrogenation Catalyzed by Thioxanthone-TfOH Complex

J Org Chem. 2025 Jan 24;90(3):1426-1433. doi: 10.1021/acs.joc.4c02905. Epub 2025 Jan 9.

Abstract

Amino compounds are important molecules, commonly found in nature and widely applied in industrial production. Recently, photocatalysis has been discovered as an efficient method to synthesize amino compounds by promoting imine hydrogenation. In this work, a strategy of imine hydrogenation catalyzed by 2e- consecutive photoinduced electron transfer (ConPET) process of thioxanthone-TfOH complex (9-HTXTF) was thoroughly investigated with its reaction conditions optimized, substrate scope examined, and reaction mechanism elucidated, which provides an efficient method for synthesizing amino compounds.