Visible-light-induced selective aerobic oxidation of sp3 C-H bonds catalyzed by a heterogeneous AgI/BiVO4 catalyst

An efficient oxidation of sp(3) C-H bonds to esters and ketones has been developed using AgI/BiVO4 as the photocatalyst and O-2 as the oxidant in water. Various substrates can be transformed into the desired esters and ketones in moderate to good yields. The synthetic utility of this approach has been demonstrated by gram-level experiments and consecutive oxidation experiments. A plausible mechanism has been proposed.