Photocatalyzed Transition-Metal-Free Oxidative Cross-Coupling Reactions of Tetraorganoborates

Readily accessible tetraorganoborate salts undergo selective coupling reactions under blue light irradiation in the presence of catalytic amounts of transition-metal-free acridinium and rhodamine photocatalysts to furnish unsymmetrical biaryls, heterobiaryls and arylated olefins. This represents an interesting conceptual approach to forge C-C bonds between aryl, heteroaryl and alkenyl groups under smooth photochemical conditions. Computational studies were conducted to investigate the mechanism of the transformation.