Carbon Nitride-Catalyzed Photoredox C-C Bond Formation with N-Aryltetrahydroisoquinolines

In this communication we describe the oxidative C?C bond formation of tertiary amines with various nucleophiles under very mild and environmental friendly conditions by using mesoporous graphitic carbon nitride (mpg-C3N4) semiconductor as a heterogeneous, metal-free photosensitizer in combination with visible light and oxygen as the terminal oxidation agent. This system can be further combined with proline-organocatalysis to achieve oxidative tandem photocatalysis, demonstrating a rich cascade of chemical possibilities of the current photosynthesis system.