Visible Light Photocatalytic Synthesis of Tetrahydroquinolines Under Batch and Flow Conditions

In this work, we describe the use of visible light and a photocatalytic system for the cyclization of iodoaryl vinyl derivatives to tetrahydroquinoline structures. The reaction proceeds under very mild conditions, tolerates different functional groups and more importantly, the method allows the synthesis ofN-free tetrahydroquinolines fromN-unprotected starting materials. In addition, the reaction can also be performed using flow-chemistry. Finally, a mechanistic proposal based on some mechanistic studies has been described.