The
decarboxylative Giese-type reaction offers a versatile methodology
for the radical alkylation of electron-deficient alkenes. Photo-mediated
variants often require a pre-activation of carboxylic acids and/or
employment of costly transition-metal photocatalysts. Herein, we present
a metal-free photocatalyzed decarboxylative Giese-type addition to
electron-deficient alkenes using pyrimidopteridine N-oxides as organic photoredox-active catalysts. This protocol comprises
mono-, di-, and trisubstituted aliphatic, α-amino, and α-oxy
acids as well as a variety of electron-deficient alkenes. Moreover,
post-synthetic derivatization and applications are presented.