Photocatalytic phosphine-mediated water activation for radical hydrogenation

Abstract The chemical activation of water would allow this earth-abundant resource to be transferred into value-added compounds, and is a topic of keen interest in energy research 1,2 . Here, we demonstrate water activation with a photocatalytic phosphine-mediated radical process under mild conditions. This reaction generates a metal-free PR 3 –H 2 O radical cation intermediate, in which both hydrogen atoms are used in the subsequent chemical transformation through sequential heterolytic (H + ) and homolytic (H • ) cleavage of the two O–H bonds. The PR 3 –OH radical intermediate provides an ideal platform that mimics the reactivity of a ‘free’ hydrogen atom, and which can be directly transferred to…

• AV
  Alexander von Humboldt-Stiftung
• WW
  Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster