Anthraquinone-Catalyzed Photooxidation of Boronic Acids in a Bio-Based Solvent (2-Me-THF)

Abstract

The phenol moiety appears in a wide variety of natural products, exhibiting biological activity, and in numerous active pharmaceutical compounds. Boronic acids are potential precursors of the phenol scaffold and a plethora of efforts has been focused in developing novel and green protocols, targeting their chemoselective transformation into phenols. Photochemistry is a rapidly expanding research field converting light energy into chemical potential. Photochemical aerobic processes possess additional advantages to photochemistry and may find applications in chemical industries. Herein, a low-catalyst loading anthraquinone-catalyzed photochemical process is demonstrated, under CFL lamp irradiation, while exploiting 2-Me-THF as the reaction medium for the conversion of boronic acids to phenols. Furthermore, a broad substrate scope was employed.