Herein, we report a photocatalytic carbonimination of alkenes for synthesizing 1,3-diamines, enabled by triplet-triplet energy transfer (TTEnT) catalysis and a formal 1,2-hydrogen atom transfer (1,2-HAT) of N-centered radicals. Through careful selection of the base and polar solvent to facilitate the 1,2-HAT step, selective carbonimination of alkenes is achieved, effectively suppressing the competing diamination pathway previously reported. This method demonstrates a broad substrate scope across a variety of oxime esters and alkenes, including examples of late-stage functionalization of bioactive molecules. Preliminary mechanistic studies support the involvement of a TTEnT process in the reaction.
Wan et al. (Thu,) studied this question.