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Photochemistry

Diradical ring formation

Nature Chemistry volume 15, pages 1058–1059 (2023)Cite this article

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Lactams and pyridines are privileged scaffolds, but strategies for combining these groups into one molecule are lacking. Now, N–N pyridinium ylides have been shown to form triplet state diradicals under photoinduced energy transfer, and subsequent [3+2] cycloaddition with the tethered alkene enables the synthesis of diverse ortho-pyridyl lactams.

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Fig. 1: Discovery of energy-transfer-induced [3+2] photocycloaddition for N-heterocycle synthesis.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory of Pesticides & Chemical Biology Ministry of Education, College of Chemistry, Central China Normal University, Wuhan, Hubei, China

    Peng-Zi Wang & Jia-Rong Chen

  2. Wuhan Institute of Photochemistry and Technology, Wuhan, Hubei, China

    Peng-Zi Wang & Jia-Rong Chen

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  1. Peng-Zi Wang
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  2. Jia-Rong Chen
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Correspondence to Jia-Rong Chen.

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Wang, PZ., Chen, JR. Diradical ring formation. Nat. Chem. 15, 1058–1059 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41557-023-01263-5

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