Abstract image for visible-light-mediated photoredox reactions
Dr. Hao Chen, Professor of Chemistry & Biochemistry, and graduate students co-authored an article on “Detection of Fleeting Amine Radical Cations and Elucidation of Chain Processes in Visible-Light-Mediated [3 + 2] Annulation by Online Mass Spectrometric Techniques” in the Journal of the American Chemical Society.
Ohio University co-authors are graduate student Yuexiang Zhang, alum Yi Cai ’16Ph.D., Visiting Professor Zhi Li, and undergraduate student David Hu. University of Arkansas co-authors are Jiang Wang and Nan Zheng.
Yuexiang Zhang
“Visible-light-mediated photoredox reactions have recently emerged as a powerful means for organic synthesis and thus have generated significant interest from the organic chemistry community,” says Chen. “Although the mechanisms of these reactions have been probed by a number of techniques such as NMR, fluorescence quenching, and laser flash photolysis and various degrees of success has been achieved, mechanistic ambiguity still exists (for instance, the involvement of the chain mechanism is still under debate) because of the lack of structural information about the proposed and short-lived intermediates.”
In collaboration with the University of Arkansas researchers, Chen’s group was able to use online mass spectrometric techniques to capture transient amine radical cations involved in the intermolecular [3 + 2] annulation reaction of N-cyclopropylaniline and styrene.
Dr. Hao Chen
“Also, we confirmed the chain reaction mechanism in this reaction by mass spectrometry in combination with online photolysis and electrochemistry. Because our experimental setup is flexible and modular, we believe that it can be easily adopted to study other photoredox reactions,” Chen said.
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