Recent Advances in Visible‐Light Photoredox Catalysis for the Thiol‐Ene/Yne Reactions

Abstract

Visible‐light photoredox catalysis has been established as a popular and powerful tool for organic transformations owing to its inherent characterization of environmental friendliness and sustainability in the past decades. The thiol‐ene/yne reactions, the direct hydrothiolation of alkenes/alkynes with thiols, represents one of the most efficient and atom‐economic approaches for the carbon‐sulfur bonds construction. In traditional methodologies, harsh conditions such as stoichiometric reagents or a specialized UV photo‐apparatus were necessary suffering from various disadvantages. In particular, visible‐light photoredox catalysis has also been demonstrated to be a greener and milder protocol for the thiol‐ene/yne reactions in recent years. Additionally, unprecedented advancements have been achieved in this area during the past decade. In this review, we will summarize the recent advances in visible‐light photoredox catalyzed thiol‐ene/yne reactions from 2015 to 2021. Synthetic strategies, substrate scope, and proposed reaction pathways are mainly discussed.