The photoinduced, multicomponent reaction of α-diazoketones, silanols, and isocyanides affords α-silyloxy acrylamides, formally derived from α-keto amides. The presence of a secondary amido group makes classic preparative methods for silyl enol ethers unfeasible in this case, while the mild conditions required by this photochemical approach allow their synthesis in good yields; moreover, the general structure can be easily modified by varying each component of the multicomponent reaction. Fine-tuning of the reaction conditions (i.e., solvents, radiation, additives) can be exploited to obtain complete Z selectivity. The reactivity of this overlooked class of silyl enol ethers has been investigated, and features that could pave the way to new applications have been found.

For the first time, a detailed study on the photophysical properties of variously substituted diazoketones and on their photoreactivity under blue LED irradiation was carried out. Despite very limited absorbance in the visible region, we have demonstrated that, independently from their structure, α-diazoketones all undergo a very efficient Wolff rearrangement. Contrarily to the same UV-mediated reaction, where photons can give rise to side processes, in this case, almost all absorbed photons are selective and effective, and the quantum yield is close to 100%. If the rearrangement is carried out in the presence of isocyanides and carboxylic acids/silanols, the photoreactivity is not affected, and the resulting ketenes can afford α-acyloxy- and α-silyloxyacrylamides through two distinct multicomponent reactions, performed both in batch and under continuous flow, with improved selectivity and broader scope. These photoinduced multicomponent reactions can be coupled with other visible-light-mediated transformations, thus increasing the diversity of the molecules obtainable by this approach.

Amphiphilic aryl radicals generated upon visible light irradiation of arylazo sulfones have been exploited in the development of a solventylation strategy via hydrogen atom transfer (HAT). The present protocol succeeded in the versatile functionalization of various olefins with carbon-centered radicals deriving from acetone, acetonitrile, chloroform, methylene chloride, nitromethane, methyl acetate, and methyl formate under metal- and photocatalyst-free conditions. The direct addition of the aryl radicals onto the olefin substrates was suppressed under high dilution conditions.

Tetrazoles have been widely studied for their biological properties. An efficient route for large-scale synthesis of 1,5-disubstituted tetrazoles (1,5-DTs) is presented. The strategy exploits a reductive approach to synthetize a cyclic chiral imine substrate which is then converted into the target product through an Ugi-azide three-component reaction (UA-3CR). The final products are equipped with additional functionalities which can be further elaborated for the generation of combinatorial libraries of enantiopure heterocycles.

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