February 2, 2024
Check out our work on olefin alkyl–arylation empowered by radical-mediated migration, which was published today in Chemical Science.
This unique reaction design has significantly expanded the utility of an important class of reactions that generates significant molecular complexity by forming two new carbon–carbon bonds. Previous metal-based approaches have been limited by complications derived from the Lewis acid metal catalysts, and this complementary free-radical approach has simultaneously overcome many important synthetic challenges.
Major congrats to Dylan Babcock, who for two years was the sole student working on photoredox chemistry in a five-person lab. Over half of the group now focuses on this research program! Co-authors Andrew Wolfram, Jaxon Barney, Santino Servagno (who is now a graduate student in the group but worked on this project during a summer 2021 REU at Penn State while an undergraduate at Mount Saint Mary’s University), and Ayush Sharma also did invaluable work!