Visible-Light-Enabled Selective Oxidation of Primary Alcohols through Hydrogen-Atom Transfer and its Application in the Synthesis of Quinazolinones

A visible-light-enabled selective oxidation of alcohols to aldehydes has been developed under transition-metal-free conditions. Utilizing eosin Y as the direct hydrogen-atom transfer (HAT) photocatalyst and molecular oxygen as the terminal oxidant, both aromatic and aliphatic aldehydes could be obtained in moderate to good yields. Using this approach, various quinazolinones, including two real drug molecules, were easily synthesized from the corresponding o-aminobenzamides and alcohols.