A visible-light-driven enantioselective radical addition to imines enabled by the direct excitation of a chiral phosphoric acid− imine complex was developed. By using benzothiazolines as the radical precursors, chiral amine products were obtained with high enantioselectivities (up to 98% ee). Mechanistic studies elucidated that the chiral phosphoric acid−imine complex has photoredox activities for oxidizing benzothiazolines.

The trifluoromethylation of iodoarenes was accomplished by use of a 2-trifluoromethylbenzimidazoline derivative as the trifluoromethylating reagent and a catalytic amount of Cu(I) in the presence of 2,2'-bipyridyl as the ligand. Through a mechanistic study, we found that the oxidative addition of the iodoarene to the Cu(I)–CF3 species is the rate-determining step.

A visible-light driven enantioselective radical addition to imines enabled by the direct excitation of a chiral phosphoric acid-imine complex was developed. By using benzothiazolines as the radical precursors, chiral amine products were obtained with high enantioselectivities (up to 98% ee). Mechanistic studies elucidated that the chiral phosphoric acid-imine complex has photoredox activities for oxidizing benzothiazolines.