Deprotonated Salicylaldehyde as Visible Light Photocatalyst
Yan‐Jun Zhuang, Jian‐Ping Qu, Yan‐Biao Kang
Abstract
Salicylaldehyde is established as an efficient visible light photocatalyst for the first time. Compared to other simple aldehyde analogies, salicylaldehyde has a unique deprotonative red-shift from 324 to 417 nm and gives rise to the remarkable increase of fluorescence quantum from 0.0368 to 0.4632, thus enabling salicylaldehyde as a visible light (>400 nm) photocatalyst. The experimental investigations suggest that the reactive radical species are generated by sensitization of the substrates by the deprotonated salicylaldehyde through an energy-transfer pathway. Consequently, the C–C cleaving alkylation reactions of N-hydroxyphthalimide esters proceed smoothly in the presence of as low as 1 mol % of salicylaldehyde under the visible-light irradiation, affording desired alkylation products with up to 99% yields. Application in visible-light induced aerobic oxidation of N-alkylpyridinium salts is also reported.