An efficient chemodivergent strategy for visible light photocatalysis is developed. In the presence of a dicyanopyrazine-derived chromophore (DPZ) photocatalyst, aerobic photooxygenation of indoles could produce either isatins or formylformanilides in satisfactory yields by judiciously selecting inorganic salts or modulating the reaction pH. The current chemodivergent method is also effective with 2-substituted indoles, opening straightforward synthetic routes to valuable 2,2-disubstituted 3-oxindoles, formylformanilide derivatives, and benzoxazinones. Mechanistic investigations involving cyclic voltammetry studies further confirm that reaction pH influences the electrochemical properties of DPZ, thus affecting the oxidative pathway by which indoles are being transformed.

A visible light-induced aerobic oxidative transposition of vinyl halides to access significant α-halo ketones has been developed by using a novel tetrahalogenoferrate(iii) complex photocatalyst.

In the presence of an L-tert-leucine-derived urea-ammonium salt as phase-transfer catalyst, a highly enantioselective alkylation of 5H-oxazol-4-ones with various benzyl bromides and allylic bromides has been developed to furnish catalytic asymmetric synthesis of biologically important dialkylated α-hydroxy carboxylic acids with a broad scope. This is the first example of an L-amino acid-derived urea-ammonium salt being used as a phase-transfer catalyst with excellent catalytic efficiency.

By switching on visible blue light, aerobic oxidation of various substrates such as α-substituted, β-substituted and α-halo styrenes were first realized with a copper (II) catalyst. Subsequent Cu(II) catalyzed photo-oxygenation...

Enantioselective Synthesis of Dialkylated -Hydroxy Carboxylic Acids Through Asymmetric Phase-Transfer Catalysis. -The enantioselective alkylation of 5H-oxazol-4-ones in the presence of an amino acid-derived urea catalyst (TLU) gives rise to desired 5-dialkylated oxazolones such as (III) and (VI). The hydrolysis of these 5-dialkylated oxazolones with NaOH provides access to dialkylated -hydroxycarboxylic amides [cf. (VII)], which can be easily converted into corresponding amines [cf. (VIII)] and hydroxycarboxylic esters [cf. (X)]. -(DUAN, S.; LI, S.; YE, X.; DU, N.-N.; TAN, C.-H.; JIANG*, Z.; J. Org. Chem. 80 (2015) 15, 7770-7778, http://dx.