Photochemical Dearomative Skeletal Modifications of Heteroaromatics

Dearomatization has emerged as a powerful strategy for rapid construction of 3D molecular architectures from simple, abundant, and planar (hetero)arenes. With the renaissance of skeletal editing and photocatalysis, the photochemical dearomative skeletal modifications of heteroarenes, enabling facile access to pharmaceutically related saturated/semi-saturated heterocycles, finds its increasing applications in synthesis of nature products and drug-like molecules. Recently, plenty of novel photochemical mechanisms or strategies were reported to modify or edit the scaffolds of heteroaromatics through disturbing aromaticity. Herein, we provide a conceptually distinct overview on these innovations based on the degree of skeletal alternation through photochemical dearomatization strategies and highlight the synthetic application in medicinal chemistry.