Recent Advances in Visible-Light-Induced Decarboxylative Coupling Reactions of α-Amino Acid Derivatives

Abstract

Amino acids are an important class of biomass raw materials, which are widely used as starting materials to synthetize bioactive molecules, drugs and functional materials, and are also useful as organic catalysts or metal ligands for asymmetric synthesis. Visible-light-induced organic transformation has attracted enormous interest due to its intrinsic characteristics of sustainability and green chemistry. The use of visible-light to promote decarboxylative coupling of α-amino acids to construct various nitrogen-containing compounds has been considered as an attractive synthetic strategy. This review highlights the recent progress in photocatalytic decarboxylative coupling reactions of α-amino acid derivatives with various partners.