Recent Progress in Light-Driven Direct Dehydroxylation and Derivation of Alcohols

Conventional methods for the reduction of alcohols mainly deal with the indirect cleavages of C-sp3-O bond involving tedious activated steps. In contrast, the more straightforward direct reduction of naturally abundant aliphatic alcohols to alkanes or other reductive derivatives poses a challenge to organic chemists due to the inherently stable and less reactive C-sp3-O bond. The development of direct reductive strategies induced by light is of utmost importance due to their atom economy, step economy and redox economy, and many progresses have been made in this area these years. However, very few reviews on this topic has been reported so far. Herein, the recent progress in the light-driven direct deoxygenation of alcohols with emphasis on important advances last ten years is reviewed, which is expected to further promote the vigorous development of this field.

Automated summary

This review covers recent progress in the light-driven direct deoxygenation of alcohols, with emphasis on important advances in the past decade, which is expected to further promote the rapid development in this field.