Photocatalytic Dehydrogenative Cross-Coupling of Alkenes with Alcohols or Azoles without External Oxidant

Direct cross-coupling between alkenes/R-H or alkenes/RXH is a dream reaction, especially without external oxidants. Inputting energy by photocatalysis and employing a cobalt catalyst as a two-electron acceptor, a direct C-H/X-H cross-coupling with H-2 evolution has been achieved for C-O and C-N bond formation. A new radical alkenylation using alkene as the redox compound is presented. A wide range of aliphatic alcohols-even long chain alcohols-are tolerated well in this system, providing a new route to multi-substituted enol ether derivatives using simple alkenes. Additionally, this protocol can also be used for N-vinylazole synthesis. Mechanistic insights reveal that the cobalt catalyst oxidizes the photocatalyst to revive the photocatalytic cycle.