Ligand-Accelerated Iron Photocatalysis Enabling Decarboxylative Alkylation of Heteroarenes

A mild, practical protocol for the decarboxylative alkylation of heteroarenes has been accomplished via iron photocatalysis. A diverse range of carboxylic acids readily undergo oxidative decarboxylation and then couple with a broad array of heteroarenes in this transformation. The photoexcited state lifetimes of iron complexes are typically much shorter than those of iridium and ruthenium complexes. Here we describe our effort on iron photocatalysis by utilizing the intramolecular charge transfer pathway of iron-carboxylate complexes.