Silicon-Assisted Photocatalyzed C–O Bond Cleavage: Broader Applications and Mechanistic Investigations

A silicon-assisted C-O bond fragmentation strategy is developed by employing photoredox catalysis. This method describes an efficient transformative alternative for the dealkylation of aryl alkyl ethers comprising bioactive moieties. The protocol was successfully applied to the disintegration of lignin models and to the synthesis of an FLAP inhibitor. Detailed mechanistic investigations, with the help of computational studies, reveal the origin of the chemoselectivity and exclude the probability of unwanted parallel reactions.